Abstract 5997: The role of neutrophil extracellular trap-CCDC25-integrin linked kinase complex in pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis

Abstract Neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) contribute to the hypoxic, immunosuppressive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumour microenvironment (TME) which promotes treatment resistance, increased invasion and metastasis. While recent studies have demonstrated a critical role of tumour cell CCDC25-ILK complex in promoting NET-DNA-induced tumour metastasis in breast cancer, here we have investigated the presence and function of NETosis-induced CCDC25-ILK signaling in the context of pancreatic cancer. We demonstrate that CCDC25 and ILK are expressed in human PDAC cell lines, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) cell lines and in cell lines derived from the KPCY genetic model of PDAC. Importantly, co-immunoprecipitation analyses showed that endogenous CCDC25 and ILK interact in PDAC cells, and the addition of neutrophil-derived NET-DNA resulted in a greater amount of ILK associated with CCDC25 and in increased wound-induced migration. Time-lapse imaging demonstrated a dramatic effect of inhibition of ILK activity on NET-DNA-induced migration by tumour cells in vitro. In vivo, co-localization of CCDC25 and ILK was observed in tumours and liver metastases from both the KPCY GEMM and the MIA PaCa-2 human PDAC xenograft models that were stained by multispectral immunofluorescence for these markers and analyzed by confocal microscopy. Similarly, both tumours and liver metastases showed the presence of infiltrating neutrophils and NETs as indicated by staining for myeloperoxidase and citrullinated histone H3. Collectively, these data identify the neutrophil extracellular trap-induced CCDC25-ILK interaction as an important contributor to PDAC progression and suggest the potential for targeting this axis to prevent NET-induced PDAC progression and metastasis. Citation Format: Paul C. McDonald, Wells S. Brown, Zack Gerbec, Shannon Awrey, Joanna Karasinska, David Schaeffer, Daniel Renouf, Ben Stanger, Shoukat Dedhar. The role of neutrophil extracellular trap-CCDC25-integrin linked kinase complex in pancreatic cancer progression and metastasis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5997.