Pancreatic cancer (PDAC) is a highly aggressive malignancy, displaying poor response to the frontline chemotherapeutics. PDAC cells undergo cellular reprograming to meet their bioenergetic and biosynthetic demands, with glycolytic shift emerging as the primary metabolic hallmark of carcinogenesis. Bitter melon juice (BMJ) is a widely consumed vegetable in Asia; recent studies have reported an increased AMPK phosphorylation and activation in BMJ-treated tumor xenografts. Here, we report on an inhibition of lactate export in PANC1 cells upon BMJ treatment, leading to acidification and cell death mediated by decreased transporter expression of GLUT1 and MCT4, both in vitro and in vivo.
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