PYCR1: A Potential Prognostic Biomarker in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Background/Objectives: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive malignant tumor with an extremely poor prognosis in digestive tumors. Pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1) plays an important role in tumor development. Therefore, we aimed to explore the effect of PYCR1 on the growth of PDAC cells. Methods: Tumor tissues and adjacent normal pancreatic tissues were collected from 89 patients with PDAC. And immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to analyze the expression level of PYCR1 in both. RNA interference was used to inhibit the expression of PYCR1 in PANC-1 and AsPC-1 cells. After infection, the expression of PYCR1 protein was detected by Western blot. The proliferation and growth of PDAC cells were detected by Celigo analysis, MTT, and clone formation assay. Cell apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry. Furthermore, the effect of PYCR1 interference on tumor growth was evaluated in vivo through injecting tumor cells subcutaneously into nude mice. Results: The expression of PYCR1 in pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than in paired adjacent normal pancreatic tissues (P<0.01). In vitro, the downregulation of PYCR1 expression significantly inhibited the cell proliferation and colony formation, and increased apoptosis in PANC-1 cells and AsPC-1 cells compared with the shCtrl group (P<0.01). And in vivo, PYCR1 interference also significantly inhibited tumor growth both in the tumor volume and weight. Conclusion: PYCR1 interference was able to inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis of pancreatic cancer. The PYCR1 may serve as a potential therapeutic and prognostic biomarker for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.