Role of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 in cancer cell resistance to gemcitabine

► Mitochondrial uncoupling reduces GEM effect in cancer cells ► GEM and UCP2 inhibition synergistically inhibit cancer cell proliferation ► GEM and UCP2 inhibition induce ROS-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells ► UCP2 expression is a potential predictive biomarker of cancer resistance to GEM ► UCP2 is an efficient molecular target to selectively inhibit cancer cell proliferation