Human promotes growth and metastasis via sphingolipid metabolite ceramide and PI4KA/AKT signaling in pancreatic cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a devastating solid malignancy with a dismal prognosis. The treatment of metastatic PC is a current challenge for medical oncologists due to a lack of early detection, drug resistance, and relapse. Therefore, potential biomarkers and effective therapeutic targets for PC are urgently required. Ceramide-1-phosphate transfer protein (CPTP) is a member of the glycolipid transfer protein family, which is associated with autophagy and inflammation regulation. The roles and mechanisms of in PC have not been clarified. In this study, by RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry analysis, we found that is highly expressed in PC and is associated with a poor prognosis in PC patients. By using cell counting kit-8, colony formation, transwell and matrigel assays , as well as xenograft model assays , we further proved that enhanced PC cells growth and metastasis. In PC cells, human promotes growth and metastasis via sphingolipid metabolite ceramide and PI4KA/AKT signaling. Sp (specific protein)-1 and Sp3 transcription factors also act as upstream positive regulators of expression in PC cells. Collectively, these findings suggested that may function as a pro-tumorigenic gene in PC cells and could be a promising therapeutic target in PC.