PYGL-mediated glucose metabolism reprogramming promotes EMT phenotype and metastasis of pancreatic cancer

Abstract

, while PYGL knockdown has opposite effects. Mechanically, hypoxia induces PYGL expression in a hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF1α)-dependent manner and promotes glycogen accumulation. Elevated PYGL mobilizes accumulated glycogen to fuel glycolysis via its activity as a glycogen phosphorylase, thus inducing the EMT process, which could be suppressed by the glycolysis inhibitor 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG). Clinically, PYGL expression is upregulated in PDAC and correlates with its malignant features and poor prognosis. Collectively, the data from our study reveal that the hypoxia/PYGL/glycolysis-induced EMT promotes PDAC metastasis, which establishes the rational for targeting hypoxia/PYGL/glycolysis/EMT signaling pathway against PDAC.