Knockdown of NF-κB activating protein promotes pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through mTOR signaling pathway

Background NF-κB activating protein (NKAP) acts as a transcriptional suppressor in the Notch signaling pathway, It plays a role in hematopoiesis maintenance, immune cell development, maturation, and functional competency acquisition. NKAP has been found to act as an oncogene in many tumors, but it has not been reported in PAAD.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of NKAP on the growth and metastasis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma(PAAD). Methods and results In this study, western blot and qRT-PCR showed that highly expressed NKAP was found in PAAD cell lines, and small interfering RNA (siRNA) was employed to reduce the expression of NKAP in PAAD cell lines. The results of CCK-8, clony formation, Transwell and flow cytometry showed that knockdown of NKAP significantly inhibited biological function of PAAD cells, and increased cell apoptosis. Study also observed that knockdown of NKAP inhibited the expression levels of apoptosis proteins and cyclin in PAAD cells. In addition, mTOR’s degree of phosphorylation and the expression of its downstream target p70S6K can both be activated by NKAP. This effect was also confirmed in salvage experiments performed with Rapamycin(RaPa), an inhibitor of mTOR. At the end of the experiment, It was investigated how NKAP affected the drug sensitivity of gemcitabine used to treat PAAD. The results showed that knocking down NKAP could increase the drug sensitivity of gemcitabine. Conclusions NKAP as an oncogene regulates the development of PAAD cells. The research found that the mTOR signaling pathway is engaged in the oncogenic role of NKAP in PAAD for the first time.