Lactate dehydrogenase A is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer and promotes the growth of pancreatic cancer cells

The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is very poor, and developing new therapeutic strategies for this cancer is needed. Recently, the Warburg effect (aerobic glycolysis) has attracted much attention for its function in the tumorigenesis. Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) executes the final step of aerobic glycolysis and has been reported to be involved in the tumor progression. However, the function of LDHA in pancreatic cancer has not been studied. Here, we found that the expression of LDHA was elevated in the clinical pancreatic cancer samples. Forced expression of LDHA promoted the growth of pancreatic cancer cells, while knocking down the expression of LDHA inhibited cell growth dramatically. Moreover, silencing the expression of LDHA inhibited the tumorigenicity of pancreatic cancer cells in vivo. Mechanistically, knocking down the expression of LDHA activated apoptosis pathway. Taken together, our study revealed the oncogenic role of LDHA in pancreatic cancer and suggested that LDHA might be a potential therapeutic target.