Inducible nitric oxide synthase enhances disease aggressiveness in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies and is refractory to the available treatments. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) expresses high level of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2), which causes sustained production of nitric oxide (NO). We tested the hypothesis that an aberrantly increased NO-release enhances the development and progression of PDAC. Enhanced NOS2 expression in tumors significantly associated with poor survival in PDAC patients (N = 107) with validation in independent cohorts. We then genetically targeted NOS2 in an autochthonous mouse model of PDAC to examine the effect of NOS2-deficiency on disease progression and survival. Genetic ablation of NOS2 significantly prolonged survival and reduced tumor severity in LSL-KrasG12D/+; LSL-Trp53R172H/+; Pdx-1-Cre (KPC) mice. Primary tumor cells isolated from NOS2-deficient KPC (NKPC) mice showed decreased proliferation and invasiveness as compared to those from KPC mice. Furthermore, NKPC tumors showed reduced expression of pERK, a diminished inactivation of Forkhead box transcription factor O (FOXO3), a tumor suppressor, and a decrease in the expression of oncomir-21, when compared with tumors in KPC mice. Taken together, these findings showed that NOS2 is a predictor of prognosis in early stage, resected PDAC patients, and provide proof-of-principle that targeting NOS2 may have potential therapeutic value in this lethal malignancy.