Evaluating the Role of Gene X in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma (PAAD) Survivability In Vitro

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remains a life-threatening disease with the most unfavorable prognosis among all cancer types. This is mainly due to the high rate of cell survivability marked by rapid cell proliferation and migration activity. Despite having KRAS oncogene as a known commonly mutated driver gene, targeting it has been challenging and has hindered the development of effective drugs for PAAD. Hence, investigating a novel therapeutic target to enhance the prognosis and survival outcomes of PAAD is urgently needed. A previous in silico study by the Department of Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery at Taipei Medical University predicted that Gene X contributes to the poor prognosis of PAAD. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that Gene X correlates with MTFR2, TTK, and TP53, all of which are known to promote cell survivability by increasing cell proliferation and migration. Further in vitro analysis was conducted to validate these findings. It has been found that indeed Gene X contributes to PAAD survivability and is supported by its correlation with MTFR2, TTK, and TP53. The results also found the inhibition of Gene X reduced cell survivability as evidenced by decreased cell proliferation and cell migration activity. The findings indicate that Gene X, which is associated with the MTFR2, TTK, and TP53 genes, plays an important role in enhancing PAAD cell survival. Thus, the role of Gene X is the potential therapeutic target for PAAD.