Department of Urology, Miyagi Cancer Center, Natori, Japan.
Prostate cancers generally become androgen-independent and resistant to hormone therapy with progression. To understand the underlying mechanisms and facilitate the development of novel treatments for androgen-independent prostate cancer, we have investigated plasma membrane-associated sialidase (NEU3), the key enzyme for ganglioside hydrolysis participating in transmembrane signaling. We have discovered NEU3 to be upregulated in human prostate cancer compared with non-cancerous tissue, correlating with the Gleason score. NEU3 silencing with siRNA in prostate cancer PC-3 and LNCaP cells resulted in increased expression of differentiation markers and in cell apoptosis, but decrease in Bcl-2 as well as a progression-related transcription factor, early growth response gene (EGR-1). In androgen-sensitive LNCaP cells, forced overexpression of NEU3 significantly induced expression of EGR-1, androgen receptor (AR) and PSA both with and without androgen, the cells becoming sensitive to androgen. The NEU3-mediated induction was abrogated by inhibitors for PI-3 kinase and MAP kinase and more specifically by their silencing in the absence of androgen, being confirmed by increased phosphorylation of AKT and ERK1/2 in NEU3 overexpressing cells. NEU3 siRNA introduction caused reduction of cell growth of an androgen-independent PC-3 cells in culture and of transplanted tumors in nude mice. These data suggest that NEU3 regulates tumor progression through AR signaling, and thus be a potential tool for diagnosis and therapy of androgen-independent prostate cancer.
Written by:
Kawamura S, Sato I, Wada T, Yamaguchi K, Li Y, Li D, Zhao X, Ueno S, Aoki H, Tochigi T, Kuwahara M, Kitamura T, Takahashi K, Moriya S, Miyagi T. Are you the author?
Reference: Cell Death Differ. 2011 Jun 17. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1038/cdd.2011.83
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21681193
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