Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is among the 3rd leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States along with a 5-year survival rate of 7%. The aggressive biology of the disease is responsible for such dismal outcome and is manifested by an increase in self-renewal capacity of the cancer cells, which leads to an increased rate of tumor-recurrence, contributing to poor prognosis. Transcription factor SOX2 maintains a critical balance between differentiation and \"stemness\" and is thus tightly regulated within a cell. In cancer, SOX2 is aberrantly \"turned-on\" leading to activation of self-renewal pathways in cancer. Regulation of Sox2 in cancer is poorly understood. In the current study, we show for the first time that in pancreatic cancer, Sox2 is modified by addition of O-GlcNAc moiety, catalyzed by OGT (O-GlcNAc Transferase) at S246. This activates Sox2 transcriptional activity by stabilizing the protein in the nucleus. A CRISPR-OGT knockout in pancreatic cancer cell line S2VP10 resulted in a delayed tumor initiation. We further showed that mutation of this site (S246A) prevents the modification of Sox2 and its downstream activity. Our study also demonstrated that targeting OGT in vivo with a small molecule inhibitor OSMI, results in decreased tumor burden, delayed tumor progression and a decreased expression of SOX2 in pancreatic cancer cells. Our study highlights for the first time that that the O-GlcNAc transferase dependent SOX2 glycosylation has a profound effect on the transcriptional activity of SOX2 and is instrumental in determining self-renewal in pancreatic cancer.\n\nSignificanceOur study highlights for the first time that that the O-GlcNAc transferase dependent SOX2 glycosylation determines self-renewal in pancreatic cancer which is responsible for tumor initiation.