Beschreibung:
Gemcitabine‐based chemotherapy is offered to patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC) per current clinical guidelines, with minimal benefit to disease free and overall survival due to rapid development of chemoresistance. Our objective in this study was to identify proteins involved in chemoresistance using proteomic profiling of GEM resistant (Panc‐1, MiaPaCa‐2) and GEM sensitive (BXPC‐3, Su8686) PC cell lines. Total protein lysates were prepared from the cell lines, separated by SDS‐PAGE and digested using standard protocols. Tryptic peptides were analyzed in duplicate on the mass spectrometer. Spectra were searched against the IPI protein database using the Sequest algorithm, then analyzed using Scaffold software and Power Law Global Error Model. We identified 19 proteins with statistically (p<0.005) increased expression in drug resistance, and 57 proteins decreased in drug resistant cells. Various proteins known to be involved in epithelial to mesenchymal transition, which is associated with increased chemoresistance and progression of PC, are differentially expressed in the cell lines. We validated our findings using western blot. We conclude that proteomics can be used to identify chemoresistance related proteins, a crucial step in combating drug resistance in PC treatment.