Targeted degradation of Pin1 by an antagonistic peptide enhances gemcitabine therapy in pancreatic cancer
Targeted protein degradation (TPD) has emerged as a powerful strategy for eliminating disease-causing proteins. The prolyl isomerase Pin1 is an attractive therapeutic target given its oncogenic function. Here, we develop PIPWF, a novel peptide degrader that induces Pin1 degradation through multivalent binding and conformational destabilization. Pin1 degradation attenuates cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) activation to reshape the fibrotic tumor microenvironment and enhance chemosensitivity <i>via</i> ENT1-mediated gemcitabine uptake. <i>In vivo</i> results demonstrated that both PIPWF and its nanoformulation M-PIPWF synergized with gemcitabine to induce tumor regression and prolong survival, illustrating a novel peptide-based TPD strategy against Pin1-driven malignancies.
Authors
- Lilusi Ma
- Qi Fang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8024-2875)
- Xiaocui Fang
- YanLian YANG
- Haipeng Zhao
- Jie Meng
- Chen Wang
- Mengting Chen
- Xiangyu Chu
Institutions
- National Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases (CN)
- National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- RSC Medicinal Chemistry
- Published
- 2025-12-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1039/d5md00970g
- Primary Topic
- Signaling Pathways in Disease
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00