Abstract: Dysregulated crosstalk between different signaling pathways contributes to tumor development, including resistance to cancer therapy. In the present study, we found that the mitogen-activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK) inhibitor trametinib failed to suppress the proliferation of PANC-1 and MGC803 cells by activating the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling pathway, while the JAK2 inhibitor fedratinib failed to inhibit the growth of the PANC-1 cells upon stimulation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling. In particular, the most prominent enhancement of the anti-proliferative effect resulted from the concurrent blockage of the JAK2/STAT3 and ERK signaling pathways. Furthermore, the combination of the two inhibitors resulted in a reduced tumor burden in mice. Our evidence suggests novel crosstalk between JAK2/STAT3 and ERK signaling in gastric cancer (GC) and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cells and provides a therapeutic strategy to overcome potential resistance in gastrointestinal cancer.

Key words: Gastrointestinal cancers; JAK2/STAT3 pathway; ERK pathway; Crosstalk; Apoptosis

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