ADAM8 as a drug target in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a grim prognosis with <5% survivors after 5 years. High expression levels of ADAM8, a metalloprotease disintegrin, are correlated with poor clinical outcome. We show that ADAM8 expression is associated with increased migration and invasiveness of PDAC cells caused by activation of ERK1/2 and higher MMP activities. For biological function, ADAM8 requires multimerization and associates with β1 integrin on the cell surface. A peptidomimetic ADAM8 inhibitor, BK-1361, designed by structural modelling of the disintegrin domain, prevents ADAM8 multimerization. In PDAC cells, BK-1361 affects ADAM8 function leading to reduced invasiveness, and less ERK1/2 and MMP activation. BK-1361 application in mice decreased tumour burden and metastasis of implanted pancreatic tumour cells and provides improved metrics of clinical symptoms and survival in a KrasG12D-driven mouse model of PDAC. Thus, our data integrate ADAM8 in pancreatic cancer signalling and validate ADAM8 as a target for PDAC therapy. Expression of ADAM8, a metalloprotease disintegrin, correlates with worse prognosis in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Here Schlomann et al. show that ADAM8 promotes PDAC invasiveness, and develop a peptide inhibitor that blocks ADAM8 function and impedes PDAC progression in mouse models.