Fig 2: Generation of iTSCs from PBMCs by the application of low-intensity vibration. CM = conditioned medium, CN = control, and LIV = vertical low-intensity vibration. The double asterisk indicates p < 0.01 vs. non-LIV treated group. PBMC CM & P04 group vs. PBMC CM group. (A) Reduction in MTT-based viability of PANC1 cells by the application of LIV-treated Jurkat cell-derived CM; (B) an elevated level of ALDOA in PBMCs in response to LIV; (C) reduction in MTT-based viability and scratch-based motility of PANC1 cells by LIV-treated PBMC-derived CM; (D) no detectable changes in MTT-based viability and scratch-based motility of MSCs by LIV-treated PBMC-derived CM.

Fig 3: Generation of iTSCs from PBMCs by overexpressing ALDOA. CN = control, pl = plasmid transfection, PBMC = peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and CM = conditioned medium. (A) Elevated ALDOA level by transfection of ALDOA plasmids; (B) reduction in MTT-based viability of PANC1 and PAN198 cells by ALDOA-overexpressing PBMC-derived CM. The double hashtag indicates p < 0.01, PBMC-plALDOA CM group vs. PBMC-NC CM group, respectively. n.s. = non-significant; (C,D) shrinkage of PDAC fragments by ALDOA-overexpressing PBMC-derived CM with and without P04. The red image indicates tissue fragments at 0 h, which represents the area of the black original image, while the green image indicates them at 96 h. The single and double asterisk indicates p < 0.05 and 0.01 vs. CN, respectively. The double hashtag indicates p < 0.01, PBMC CM & P04 group vs. PBMC CM group.

Fig 4: Predicted interaction between P04 and EGFR. The double asterisk indicates p < 0.01 vs. CN (A) Reduction in MTT-based viability of PANC1 cells in response to 5 μg/mL of recombinant ALDOA protein; (B) decrease in the levels of ALDOA and K-Ras in PANC1 cells by the application of 25 μg/mL of P04; (C) predicted interactions between P04 and EGFR by molecular docking using Z-DOCK software 2016.

Fig 5: Generation of iTSCs by the overexpression of ALDOA in MSCs. CN = control, pl = plasmid transfection, MSC = mesenchymal stem cell, and CM = conditioned medium. The single and double asterisks indicate p < 0.05 and 0.01, MSC CM group vs. CN. The double hashtag indicates p < 0.01, MSC-plALDOA CM group vs. MSC-NC CM group, respectively. n.s. = non-significant. (A,B) The elevated ALDOA transcript level in patients with PDAC, and lower survival rate for patients with a high ALDOA level in TCGA database; (C–E) reduction in MTT-based viability, EdU-based proliferation, scratch-based motility, and transwell invasion, respectively, by ALDOA-overexpressing MSC-derived conditioned medium.