A new study led by Hirshberg-funded investigators at UCLA sheds light on how chronic stress and an unhealthy diet may work together to accelerate the early development of pancreatic cancer. These findings provide critical insight into how lifestyle factors contribute to this disease and reinforce the urgent need for prevention and early intervention strategies.
Researchers identified a key molecular mechanism by which stress and obesity trigger changes in pancreatic cells that may lead to cancer. Specifically, stress-related neurotransmitters and obesity-related hormones activate a protein called CREB, which is linked to cancer cell growth. While stress hormones stimulate the β-adrenergic receptor/PKA pathway, obesity-related signals primarily use the PKD pathway. These findings suggest that both stress and obesity fuel pancreatic cancer growth through similar mechanisms, providing a new understanding of how lifestyle factors contribute to disease progression.
In preclinical models, mice fed a high-fat diet developed precancerous pancreatic lesions. However, when combined with social isolation stress, these mice developed even more advanced lesions, demonstrating the compounding effects of chronic stress and obesity on cancer risk. Notably, social isolation stress had a more pronounced impact on female mice than males. Researchers hypothesize that biological differences, including estrogen levels and increased β-adrenergic receptor activity in females, may contribute to this heightened susceptibility.
These findings underscore the urgent need for a multifaceted approach to pancreatic cancer prevention, addressing both biological and lifestyle-related risk factors. Encouragingly, researchers suggest that existing medications could potentially mitigate these risks. Since β-adrenergic receptors play a crucial role in stress-related cancer growth, beta-blockers, commonly prescribed for high blood pressure, are being explored as a possible strategy to counteract these effects.
The study’s first authors are Yaroslav Teper, a 2021 Seed Grant awardee and project scientist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Xiaoying Sun, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA. The senior authors are Dr. Guido Eibl, director of the Hirshberg Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research Laboratory at UCLA and Dr. Enrique Rozengurt, distinguished professor of medicine and chief of research in the division of digestive diseases at UCLA and Ronald S. Hirshberg Chair in Translational Pancreatic Cancer Research.
It is thanks to our Seed Grant funding of Drs. Eibl and Teper, and our investments in our UCLA labs that this research has deepened our understanding of how lifestyle factors contribute to pancreatic cancer development. In today’s uncertain funding landscape, we remain steadfast in our mission to advance breakthrough pancreatic cancer research that changes and saves lives.
For nearly three decades, the Hirshberg Foundation has nurtured nearly every major advance in pancreatic cancer research, to ensure that pioneering ideas receive the support they need to grow into life-saving discoveries.
Learn more about Dr. Guido Eibl’s research →
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