Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies and has a poor prognosis despite being extensively researched. The role of serum-derived exosomes in tumorigenesis and the development of PC is still unclear.
Method: The present study employed iTRAQ-based proteomic analysis to search for differences between the serum exosomes of PC patients and those from control patients. Then, bioinformatics methods were used to analyze the functions of the identified proteins, and the possible functions were verified through cell culture experiments.
Results: A total of 611 proteins were identified from exosomes, and 141 proteins were differentially expressed, with 91 up- and 50 down regulated proteins in PC cancer compared to healthy controls. Further analysis indicated that APOE serves as an important hub in the network. In addition, CRP, VWF, APOA2, NIN, and GSK3B potentially interact with many other proteins. We then tested the effect of patient serum-derived exosomes on pancreatic cancer cells and found that patient serum-derived exosomes, but not those from healthy controls, induced cell proliferation, migration, and EMT, supporting the role of exosomes in metastasis.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that exosomes derived from PC patients may promote PC metastasis.
Keywords: proteomic analysis, pancreatic cancer, serum exosome, metastasis