RESUMO
One critical mechanism through which prostate cancer (PCa) adapts to treatments targeting androgen receptor (AR) signaling is the emergence of ligand-binding domain-truncated and constitutively active AR splice variants, particularly AR-V7. While AR-V7 has been intensively studied, its ability to activate distinct biological functions compared with the full-length AR (AR-FL), and its role in regulating the metastatic progression of castration-resistant PCa (CRPC), remain unclear. Our study found that, under castrated conditions, AR-V7 strongly induced osteoblastic bone lesions, a response not observed with AR-FL overexpression. Through combined ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and RNA-seq analyses, we demonstrated that AR-V7 uniquely accesses the androgen-responsive elements in compact chromatin regions, activating a distinct transcription program. This program was highly enriched for genes involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastasis. Notably, we discovered that SOX9, a critical metastasis driver gene, was a direct target and downstream effector of AR-V7. Its protein expression was dramatically upregulated in AR-V7-induced bone lesions. Moreover, we found that Ser81 phosphorylation enhanced AR-V7's pro-metastasis function by selectively altering its specific transcription program. Blocking this phosphorylation with CDK9 inhibitors impaired the AR-V7-mediated metastasis program. Overall, our study has provided molecular insights into the role of AR splice variants in driving the metastatic progression of CRPC.
Assuntos
Regulação Neoplásica da Expressão Gênica , Neoplasias de Próstata Resistentes à Castração , Receptores Androgênicos , Animais , Humanos , Masculino , Camundongos , Processamento Alternativo , Neoplasias Ósseas/secundário , Neoplasias Ósseas/genética , Neoplasias Ósseas/metabolismo , Neoplasias Ósseas/patologia , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Transição Epitelial-Mesenquimal/genética , Metástase Neoplásica , Neoplasias de Próstata Resistentes à Castração/genética , Neoplasias de Próstata Resistentes à Castração/patologia , Neoplasias de Próstata Resistentes à Castração/metabolismo , Isoformas de Proteínas/genética , Isoformas de Proteínas/metabolismo , Receptores Androgênicos/genética , Receptores Androgênicos/metabolismo , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/genética , Fatores de Transcrição SOX9/metabolismo , Transcrição GênicaRESUMO
Although American men of European ancestry represent the largest population of patients with prostate cancer, men of African ancestry are disproportionately affected by prostate cancer, with higher prevalence and worse outcomes. These racial disparities in prostate cancer are due to multiple factors, but variations in genomic susceptibility such as SNP may play an important role in determining cancer aggressiveness and treatment outcome. Using public databases, we have identified a prostate cancer susceptibility SNP at an intronic enhancer of the neural precursor expressed, developmentally downregulated 9 (NEDD9) gene, which is strongly associated with increased risk of patients with African ancestry. This genetic variation increased expression of NEDD9 by modulating the chromatin binding of certain transcription factors, including ERG and NANOG. Moreover, NEDD9 displayed oncogenic activity in prostate cancer cells, promoting prostate cancer tumor growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Together, our study provides novel insights into the genetic mechanisms driving prostate cancer racial disparities. SIGNIFICANCE: A prostate cancer susceptibility genetic variation in NEDD9, which is strongly associated with the increased risk of patients with African ancestry, increases NEDD9 expression and promotes initiation and progression of prostate cancer.See related commentary by Mavura and Huang, p. 3764.