AMPK-related kinase 5 (ARK5) enhances gemcitabine resistance in pancreatic carcinoma by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

AMPK-related kinase 5 (ARK5) is a member of the human AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) family, which is associated with increased tumor survival and drug resistance in many cancers. However, the function of ARK5 in pancreatic carcinoma (PC) is unclear. Our study investigated the role of ARK5 in the chemo-resistance of PC and its underlying mechanism. PC cell lines that displayed high expression levels of ARK5 had low sensitivity to gemcitabine (GEM). Suppression of ARK5 increased sensitivity to GEM in PC cell lines. Western blotting and immunofluorescence showed that suppression of ARK5 upregulated expression of E-cadherin and downregulated vimentin expression. Suppression of ARK5 also inhibited the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) efficiency associated with GEM in PC cell lines and upregulation of ARK5 expression enhanced GEM resistance in PC cell lines by inducing Twist-mediated EMT. In addition, we found that suppression of ARK5 increased GEM sensitivity in PC cell lines under hypoxic conditions. ARK5 increases GEM resistance in PC cell lines via EMT, and suppression of ARK5 increases sensitivity to GEM under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.