Pancreatic cancer is an increasingly common cause of cancer mortality with a tight correspondence between disease mortality and incidence. Furthermore, it is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage with a very dismal prognosis. Due to the high heterogeneity, metabolic reprogramming, and dense stromal environment associated with pancreatic cancer, patients benefit little from current conventional therapy. Recent insight into the biology and genetics of pancreatic cancer has supported its molecular classification, thus expanding clinical therapeutic options. In this review, we summarize how the biological features of pancreatic cancer and its metabolic reprogramming as well as the tumor microenvironment regulate its development and progression. We further discuss potential biomarkers for pancreatic cancer diagnosis, prediction, and surveillance based on novel liquid biopsies. We also outline recent advances in defining pancreatic cancer subtypes and subtype-specific therapeutic responses and current preclinical therapeutic models. Finally, we discuss prospects and challenges in the clinical development of pancreatic cancer therapeutics.

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Background Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) play critical roles in cancerous processes. Although miR-3064 was reported to be an important tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer, the cellular impact of miR-3064 on pancreatic cancer (PC) progression, its downstream target genes and upstream mechanisms that control the expression of miR-3064 remain to be fully clarified. Methods We compared miRNA expression profiles between PC tissues compared with normal tissues using a miRNA microarray analysis of clinical samples, and screened the identified miRNAs for their influence on cell proliferation. We measured the expression of miR-3064 in PC tissues and PC cell lines using quantitative real-time PCR assays. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments were conducted to explore the biologic significance of miR-3064 in PC progression both in vitro and in vivo. The interactions between miR-3064 and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) PXN-AS1 was verified using the luciferase reporter assay and RNA immunoprecipitation assay. Results We showed that miR-3064 was significantly overexpressed in PC tissues compared to normal tissues. High miR-3064 was associated with worse prognosis in patients with PC. Functionally, ectopic expression of miR-3064 promoted the proliferation, invasion, clone formation and sphere formation of PC cells in vitro and stimulated PC growth in vivo, while specific knockdown of miR-3064 or CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of miR-3064 resulted in opposite phenotypes. Further investigation revealed that miR-3064 directly targeted PIP4K2B, which was reduced in PC tissues and attenuated PC cell proliferation, invasion and sphere formation induced by miR-3064. Importantly, lncRNA PXN-AS1 expression was downregulated in PC samples, and it directly interacted with miR-3064 and suppressed its levels in PC cells. Enforced expression of PXN-AS1 remarkably decreased cell proliferation, invasion and sphere formation, while re-expression of miR-3064 abrogated these effects of PXN-AS1. Conclusions MiR-3064, a key oncogenic miRNA, could promote PC cell growth, invasion and sphere formation via downregulating the levels of tumor suppressor PIP4K2B. PXN-AS1 functioned as a sponge to suppress the expression of miR-3064. These observations offer fresh insight into the mechanisms through which miR-3064 modulates the development of PC. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-019-1379-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Dissecting and understanding the cancer ecosystem, especially that around the tumor margins, which have strong implications for tumor cell infiltration and invasion, are essential for exploring the mechanisms of tumor metastasis and developing effective new treatments. Using a novel tumor border scanning and digitization model enabled by nanoscale resolution-SpaTial Enhanced REsolution Omics-sequencing (Stereo-seq), we identified a 500 µm-wide zone centered around the tumor border in patients with liver cancer, referred to as “the invasive zone”. We detected strong immunosuppression, metabolic reprogramming, and severely damaged hepatocytes in this zone. We also identified a subpopulation of damaged hepatocytes with increased expression of serum amyloid A1 and A2 (referred to collectively as SAAs) located close to the border on the paratumor side. Overexpression of CXCL6 in adjacent malignant cells could induce activation of the JAK-STAT3 pathway in nearby hepatocytes, which subsequently caused SAAs’ overexpression in these hepatocytes. Furthermore, overexpression and secretion of SAAs by hepatocytes in the invasive zone could lead to the recruitment of macrophages and M2 polarization, further promoting local immunosuppression, potentially resulting in tumor progression. Clinical association analysis in additional five independent cohorts of patients with primary and secondary liver cancer (n = 423) showed that patients with overexpression of SAAs in the invasive zone had a worse prognosis. Further in vivo experiments using mouse liver tumor models in situ confirmed that the knockdown of genes encoding SAAs in hepatocytes decreased macrophage accumulation around the tumor border and delayed tumor growth. The identification and characterization of a novel invasive zone in human cancer patients not only add an important layer of understanding regarding the mechanisms of tumor invasion and metastasis, but may also pave the way for developing novel therapeutic strategies for advanced liver cancer and other solid tumors.

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Armeniaspirols (1–3) are potent antibiotics against Gram-positive pathogens. Through a biosynthetic investigation, we identified four enzymes involved in the structural modification of 1–3. Manipulation of their activity led to the generation of 4–6 and nine novel analogues, 7–15. Bioactivity assessments revealed that the pyrrole chloro group and the methyl group are important for the antimicrobial activities of armeniaspirols, which lays the foundation for future structure optimization and mechanism of action studies of armeniaspirols.