Gasdermin C promotes stemness and immune evasion in pancreatic cancer via pyroptosis-independent mechanism

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly metastatic and lethal disease. Gasdermins are primarily associated with necrosis via membrane permeabilization and pyroptosis, a lytic pro-inflammatory type of cell death. In this study, we report GSDMC upregulation during PDAC progression. GSDMC directly induces genes related to stemness, EMT, and immune evasion. Targeting Gsdmc in murine PDAC models reprograms the immunosupressive tumor microenvironment, resulting in diminished tumor initiation, growth, metastasis, and enhanced response to PD-1 checkpoint inhibition. Mechanistically, we discover that ADAM17 cleaves GSDMC, releasing a C-terminal fragment that translocates to the nucleus and binds to promoter regions of stemness, metastasis, and immune evasion-related genes. Pharmacological inhibition of GSDMC cleavage or hindrance of its nuclear translocation was equally effective in suppressing downstream targets and inhibiting PDAC progression. Our findings position GSDMC as a potential therapeutic target for enhancing treatment response in this deadly disease. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq) for GSDMC antibodies targeting either N-terminal fragment or C-terminal fragment