Construction of enzalutamide-resistant cell model of prostate cancer and preliminary screening of potential drug-resistant genes

2021 ◽  
pp. 153537022110126
Author(s):  
Tao Feng ◽  
Dechao Wei ◽  
Jiahui Zhao ◽  
Qiankun Li ◽  
Pengju Guo ◽  
...  

Among many factors of causing castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) progression, a growing number of evidences have shown androgen receptors play a critical role. Therefore, blocking androgen receptor remains a therapeutic goal of CRPC. However, resistance to androgen receptor inhibitors, for example, enzalutamide, limits therapeutic efficacy for many patients. In this study, to develop an enzalutamide-resistant cell model for molecular mechanism investigation of enzalutamide-resistance, we continuously treated C4-2B cells with multiplied concentrations of enzalutamide. The IC50 of resistant cells was identified as 14.7705 µM, and the resistance index was calculated as 12.4. In addition, we verified the resistance of resistant cells through experiments in vivo and found the genes in androgen receptor signaling pathway (androgen receptor, Jagged1, Notch1) and those in androgen receptor alternative signaling pathways behaved the opposite. For some of the former, their mRNA and protein expression reduced markedly while for the latter, for example, CXCR7, AKT, STAT3, FOXP3, they rose dramatically in the expression level of protein and mRNA. More importantly, the tumor volume, tumor wet weight, PSA and VEGF secretion level, positive staining rate of Ki67 nuclei in resistant strain heterogeneous tumor treated with enzalutamide were significantly higher than those of maternal cell heterogeneous tumor treated with enzalutamide, whereas no obvious difference was detected between resistant strain heterogeneous tumor treated with enzalutamide and those of the resistant strain treated with reference drug. Finally, we identified 654 differentially expression genes and 2 compounds (atracurium besilate, methotrexates) associated with the amelioration of enzalutamide-resistance. Overall, we successfully established an enzalutamide-resistance cell model and screened out some resistance genes and candidate small molecule drugs.

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Namrata Khurana ◽  
Suresh C. Sikka

Androgen receptor (AR) signaling plays a key role not only in the initiation of prostate cancer (PCa) but also in its transition to aggressive and invasive castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). However, the crosstalk of AR with other signaling pathways contributes significantly to the emergence and growth of CRPC. Wnt/β-catenin signaling facilitates ductal morphogenesis in fetal prostate and its anomalous expression has been linked with PCa. β-catenin has also been reported to form complex with AR and thus augment AR signaling in PCa. The transcription factor SOX9 has been shown to be the driving force of aggressive and invasive PCa cells and regulate AR expression in PCa cells. Furthermore, SOX9 has also been shown to propel PCa by the reactivation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. In this review, we discuss the critical role of SOX9/AR/Wnt/β-catenin signaling axis in the development and progression of CRPC. The phytochemicals like sulforaphane and curcumin that can concurrently target SOX9, AR and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways in PCa may thus be beneficial in the chemoprevention of PCa.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Shi ◽  
Xiaojiang Wang ◽  
Qiong Zhu ◽  
Gang Chen

Abstract Background: Sorafenib is the first molecular-targeted drug for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its treatment efficiency decreases after a short period of time because of the development of drug resistance. This study investigates the role of key genes in regulating sorafenib-resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma and elucidates the mechanism of drug resistance. Methods: The HCC HepG2 cells were used to generate a sorafenib-resistant cell model by culturing the cells in gradually increasing concentration of sorafenib. RNA microarray was applied to profile gene expression and screen key genes associated with sorafenib resistance. Specific targets were knockdown in sorafenib-resistant HepG2 cells for functional studies. The HCC model was established in ACI rats using Morris hepatoma3924A cells to validate selected genes associated with sorafenib resistance in vivo. Results: The HepG2 sorafenib-resistant cell model was successfully established. The IC50 of sorafenib was 9.988mM in HepG2 sorafenib-resistant cells. A total of 35 up-regulated genes were detected by expression profile chip. High-content screening technology was used and a potential drug-resistant gene RPL28 was filtered out. After knocking down of RPL28 in HepG2 sorafenib-resistant cells, the results of cell proliferation and apoptosis illustrated that RPL28 is the key drug-resistant gene in the cells. Furthermore, it was found that both RNA and protein expression of RPL28 increased in HepG2 sorafenib-resistant specimens of Morris Hepatoma rats. In addition, the expression of functional proteins Ki-67 increased in sorafenib-resistant cells. Conclusion: Our study suggested that RPL28 was a key gene for sorafenib resistance in HCC both in vitro and in vivo.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1469
Author(s):  
Hadjer Dellal ◽  
Abdelhay Boulahtouf ◽  
Elina Alaterre ◽  
Alice Cuenant ◽  
Marina Grimaldi ◽  
...  

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in men. Its growth mainly relies on the activity of the androgen receptor (AR), justifying the use of androgen deprivation therapy as a gold standard treatment for the metastatic disease. Inhibition of the androgen axis using second generation antagonists has improved patients’ survival, but is systematically confronted to resistance mechanisms, leading to a median survival that does not exceed 5 years. Counteracting this resistance has been the object of a large number of investigations, with a particular emphasis towards the identification of new AR inhibitors, whether they antagonize the receptor by a competitive or a non-competitive binding. To this end, many high content screens have been performed, to identify new non-steroidal AR antagonists, using a variety of approaches, but reported somewhat controversial results, depending on the approach and on the cell model that was used for screening. In our study, we used the U2OS osteosarcoma cells stably transfected with AR or ARv7 and a luciferase reporter as a previously validated model to screen the Prestwick Phytochemical library. The results of our screen identified ellipticine, harmol, and harmine hydrochloride as confirmed hits. Surprisingly, we could demonstrate that harmol hydrochloride, previously identified as a non-competitive inhibitor of AR or a weak inhibitor of androgen signaling, was actually a competitive antagonist of AR, which inhibits the growth of VCaP prostate cancer line, at concentrations for which it did not affect the growth of the AR negative DU145 and PC3 cells. Interestingly, we also report for the first time that harmol hydrochloride was selective for AR, as it could not alter the activity of other nuclear receptors, such as the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), the progesterone receptor (PR), or the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). Additionally, we demonstrate that, conversely to enzalutamide, harmol hydrochloride did not show any agonistic activity towards the pregnane X receptor (PXR), a master regulator of drug metabolism. Together, our results shed light on the importance of the cellular context for the screening of new AR antagonists. They further indicate that some of the potential hits that were previously identified may have been overlooked.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wu ◽  
Dan Jin ◽  
Xiaohong Wang ◽  
Jing Du ◽  
Weihua Di ◽  
...  

Objectives. Cisplatin (DDP) is one of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs for several cancers, including non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, resistance to DDP eventually develops, limiting its further application. New therapy targets are urgently needed to reverse DDP resistance.Methods. The mRNA expression ofUBE2C,ZEB1/2,ABCG2, andERCC1was analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The protein levels of these molecules were analyzed by Western blotting and immunofluorescent staining. Cell proliferation was detected by CCK8 and MTT assays. Cell migration and invasion were analyzed by wound healing assay and Transwell assays. Promoter activities and gene transcription were analyzed by luciferase reporter assay.Results.In this study, we examined the effect of UBE2C and ZEB1/2 expression levels in DDP-resistant cells of NSCLC. We confirmed that aberrant expression of UBE2C and ZEB1/2 plays a critical role in repressing the DDP sensitivity to NSCLC cells. Additionally, knockdown of UBE2C significantly sensitized resistant cells to DDP by repressing the expression of ZEB1/2. Mechanistic investigations indicated that UBE2C transcriptionally regulated ZEB1/2 by accelerating promoter activity. This study revealed that ZEB1/2 promotes the epithelial mesenchymal transition and expression of ABCG2 and ERCC1 to participate in UBE2C-mediated NSCLC DDP-resistant cell progression, metastasis, and invasion.Conclusion. UBE2C may be a novel therapy target for NSCLC for sensitizing cells to the chemotherapeutic agent DDP.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 3936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohei Sekino ◽  
Xiangrui Han ◽  
Takafumi Kawaguchi ◽  
Takashi Babasaki ◽  
Keisuke Goto ◽  
...  

Recent studies have reported that TUBB3 overexpression is involved in docetaxel (DTX) resistance in prostate cancer (PCa). The aim of this study was to clarify the role of TUBB3 in DTX and cabazitaxel (CBZ) resistance, and cross-resistance between DTX and CBZ in PCa. We analyzed the effect of TUBB3 knockdown on DTX and CBZ resistance and examined the interaction between TUBB3 and PTEN. We also investigated the role of phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) inhibitor (LY294002) in DTX and CBZ resistance. TUBB3 expression was upregulated in DTX-resistant and CBZ-resistant cells. TUBB3 knockdown re-sensitized DTX-resistant cells to DTX and CBZ-resistant cells to CBZ. Additionally, TUBB3 knockdown re-sensitized DTX-resistant cell lines to CBZ, indicating that TUBB3 mediates cross-resistance between DTX and CBZ. Knockdown of TUBB3 enhanced PTEN expression, and PTEN knockout enhanced TUBB3 expression. LY294002 suppressed TUBB3 expression in DTX-resistant and CBZ-resistant cell lines. LY294002 re-sensitized DTX-resistant cell lines to DTX and CBZ-resistant cell lines to CBZ. These results suggest that TUBB3 is involved in DTX resistance and CBZ resistance. A combination of LY294002/DTX and that of LY294002/CBZ could be potential strategies for PCa treatment.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 4504-4504 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Donovan ◽  
H. Scher ◽  
P. Scardino ◽  
A. Kotsianti ◽  
C. Cordon-Cardo

4504 Background: A functional androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis plays a critical role in prostate cancer (PCA) development and progression across the clinical spectrum of the illness. Following diagnosis, most prostate cancers respond to treatments that block circulating androgen levels or block AR action. The measurement of AR levels in tumor tissue samples has the potential to provide prognostic information, to treatment selection, and a measure of the pharmacodynamic effect of a therapeutic agent(s) designed to reduce AR levels or block AR action. Existing methods to assess AR antigen levels in tissue are subjective, we have developed a systems pathology strategy for interrogating biomarker assessment in a predictive model by integrating clinical data with histological and quantitative antigen profiles. Methods: Tissue microarrays from 366 MSKCC patients were stained with H&E, images captured, analyzed and quantitative cellular features produced. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed for AR and a staining index generated. A multiplex immunofluorescent (IF) assay using DAPI, CK18 and AR was performed on a subset of patients. IF mages were acquired and specific IF scripts were used to generate quantitative features of AR which were compared with AR IHC data. Results: Androgen Receptor levels by IHC in PCA demonstrated that a high-level of expression was associated with a greater risk of PSA-relapse within 5 years. (P < 0.0001; cut point 100). The correlation of AR IF with AR IHC established that all derived AR-IF measurements were statistically associated with the AR-IHC data. Furthermore, in a very preliminary model using machine learning and feature selection to predict PSA recurrence, 1AR-IF feature (epithelial and stromal AR) along with 2 clinical variables was selected with a concordance index of 0.80. Conclusion: AR levels in newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer are associated with clinical outcome. The levels can be assessed accurately and in a standardized manner using quantitative multiplex antigen methods. Such approaches are critical for evaluating biomarkers, especially when determining therapeutic response and clinical endpoints. [Table: see text]


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Momoe Itsumi ◽  
Masaki Shiota ◽  
Akira Yokomizo ◽  
Ario Takeuchi ◽  
Eiji Kashiwagi ◽  
...  

Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) induces cellular apoptosis in prostate cancer cells, the growth of which is governed by androgen/androgen receptor (AR) signaling, but the mechanism by which PMA exerts this effect remains unknown. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the mechanistic action of PMA in prostate cancer cells with regard to AR. We showed that PMA decreased E2F1 as well as AR expression in androgen-dependent prostate cancer LNCaP cells. Furthermore, PMA activated JNK and p53 signaling, resulting in the induction of cellular apoptosis. In LNCaP cells, androgen deprivation and a novel anti-androgen enzalutamide (MDV3100) augmented cellular apoptosis induced by PMA. Moreover, castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) C4-2 cells were more sensitive to PMA compared with LNCaP cells and were sensitized to PMA by enzalutamide. Finally, the expression of PKC, E2F1, and AR was diminished in PMA-resistant cells, indicating that the gain of independence from PKC, E2F1, and AR functions leads to PMA resistance. In conclusion, PMA exerted its anti-cancer effects via the activation of pro-apoptotic JNK/p53 and inhibition of pro-proliferative E2F1/AR in prostate cancer cells including CRPC cells. The therapeutic effects of PMA were augmented by androgen deletion and enzalutamide in androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells, as well as by enzalutamide in castration-resistant cells. Taken together, PMA derivatives may be promising therapeutic agents for treating prostate cancer patients including CRPC patients.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chamikara Liyanage ◽  
Adil Malik ◽  
Pevindu Abeysinghe ◽  
Judith Clements ◽  
Jyotsna Batra

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer affecting men worldwide. PCa shows a broad-spectrum heterogeneity in its biological and clinical behavior. Although androgen targeted therapy (ATT) has been the mainstay therapy for advanced PCa, it inevitably leads to treatment resistance and progression to castration resistant PCa (CRPC). Thus, greater understanding of the molecular basis of treatment resistance and CRPC progression is needed to improve treatments for this lethal phenotype. The current study interrogated both proteomics and transcriptomic alterations stimulated in AR antagonist/anti-androgen (Bicalutamide and Enzalutamide) treated androgen-dependent cell model (LNCaP) in comparison with androgen-independent/castration-resistant cell model (C4-2B). The analysis highlighted the activation of MYC and PSF/SFPQ oncogenic upstream regulators in response to the anti-androgen treatment. Moreover, the study revealed anti-androgen induced genes/proteins related to transcription/translation regulation, energy metabolism, cell communication and signaling cascades promoting tumor growth and proliferation. In addition, these molecules were found dysregulated in PCa clinical proteomic and transcriptomic datasets, suggesting their potential involvement in PCa progression. In conclusion, our study provides key molecular signatures and associated pathways that might contribute to CRPC progression despite treatment with anti-androgens. Such molecular signatures could be potential therapeutic targets to improve the efficacy of existing therapies and/or predictive/prognostic value in CRPC for treatment response.


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