DCLK1 small extracellular vesicle proteome

Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) is a putative cancer stem cell marker, a promising diagnostic and prognostic maker for malignant tumors and a proposed driver gene for gastric cancer. Here we show that DCLK1 expression in the gastric cancer cell line MKN1 impacts EV biogenesis both quantitatively and qualitatively in a kinase dependent manner, revealing a hitherto unknown role for this putative oncogenic kinase. Importantly, the proteome of EVs isolated from DCLK1 expressing gastric cancer cells is enriched for proteins involved in tumor-promoting biological processes, raising the prospect of establishing DCLK1 as a novel anti-cancer target.