There are currently no effective therapies for metastatic prostate cancer because the molecular mechanisms that underlie the metastatic spread of primary prostate cancer are unclear. Transcription factor Stat3 is constitutively active in malignant prostate epithelium, and its activation is associated with high histological grade and advanced cancer stage. Progression of prostate cancer to metastatic disease is one of the key problems in the clinical management of prostate cancer.1 This is because there are currently no effective therapies for metastatic prostate cancer, and metastatic prostate cancer is the lethal form of the disease. Identification of the molecular changes that lead to formation of distant metastasis is critical for improvement of therapeutic interventions for metastatic prostate cancer and for development of strategies to prevent primary prostate cancer from metastasizing.Transcription factor Stat3 has been implicated in the promotion of growth and progression of prostate cancer. Stat3, which is both a cytoplasmic signaling molecule and a nuclear transcription factor, belongs to the sevenmember Stat gene family of transcription factors.2 Stat3 becomes active by phosphorylation of a specific tyrosine residue in the carboxy-terminal domain by a tyrosine kinase (pY705).3 Activation of Stat3 is supplemented by phosphorylation of a specific serine residue (S727).4 After phosphorylation, Stat3 homodimerizes and translocates to the nucleus where it binds to specific Stat3 response elements of target gene promoters to regulate transcription.3 Transcription factor Stat3 is constitutively active in clinical human prostate cancer, 5-9 and activation of Stat3 has been associated with advanced stage of prostate cancer. 5,9 Moreover, several reports implicate Stat3 in promotion of prostate cancer cell proliferation and inhibition of apoptosis. 5,10,11

Purpose: Signal transducer and activator of transcription 5a/b (Stat5a/b) is the key mediator of prolactin effects in prostate cancer cells via activation of Janus-activated kinase 2. Prolactin is a locally produced growth factor in human prostate cancer. Prolactin protein expression and constitutive activation of Stat5a/b are associated with high histologic grade of clinical prostate cancer. Moreover, activation of Stat5a/b in primary prostate cancer predicts early disease recurrence. Here, we inhibited Stat5a/b by several different methodologic approaches. Our goal was to establish a proof of principle that Stat5a/b is critical for prostate cancer cell viability in vitro and for prostate tumor growth in vivo. There are currently no effective pharmacologic therapies for primary or recurrent prostate cancer. Androgen deprivation therapy only provides a temporary inhibition of the cancer growth before the hormone-refractory form of prostate cancer develops. Moreover, no effective pharmacologic treatments exist for elimination of residual cancer cells after prostate cancer surgery. We propose here transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 5a/b (Stat5a/b) as a potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.Stat5 is one of the seven members of Stat gene family of transcription factors (1). Two highly homologous isoforms of Stat5, 94-kDa Stat5a and 92-kDa Stat5b, are encoded by separate genes (1). Stat5a and Stat5b (hereafter referred to as Stat5a/b) are latent cytoplasmic proteins that act as both cytoplasmic signaling proteins and nuclear transcription factors. Phosphorylation of a specific tyrosine residue in the COOH-terminal domain (1) by a tyrosine kinase, typically of the Janus-activated kinase protein family (2, 3), activates Stat5a/b. After phosphorylation, Stat5a and Stat5b homodimerize or heterodimerize and translocate to the nucleus where they bind to specific Stat5a/b response elements of target gene promoters (1).Stat5 proteins are divided into five structurally and functionally conserved domains. The NH 2 -terminal domain is involved in stabilizing interactions between two Stat5 dimers to form tetramers, which are needed for maximal transcriptional activation of weak promoters (4). Next to the NH 2 -terminal domain is the coiled-coil domain that facilitates protein-protein interactions (5, 6) important for transcriptional regulation. The DNA-binding domain mediates direct binding of Stat5a/b to DNA and recognizes members of the IFN-g -activated site

The molecular mechanisms that promote progression of localized prostate cancer to hormone-refractory and disseminated disease are poorly understood. Prolactin (Prl) is a local growth factor produced in high-grade prostate cancer, and exogenously added Prl in tissue or explant cultures of normal and malignant prostate is a strong mitogen and survival factor for prostate epithelium.

There are no effective therapies for disseminated prostate cancer. Constitutive activation of Stat5 in prostate cancer is associated with cancer lesions of high histological grade. We have shown that Stat5 is activated in 61% of distant metastases of clinical prostate cancer. Active Stat5 increased metastases formation of prostate cancer cells in nude mice by 11-fold in an experimental metastases assay. Active Stat5 promoted migration and invasion of prostate cancer cells, and induced rearrangement of the microtubule network. Active Stat5 expression was associated with decreased cell surface E-cadherin levels, while heterotypic adhesion of prostate cancer cells to endothelial cells was stimulated by active Stat5. Activation of Stat5 and Stat5-induced binding of prostate cancer cells to endothelial cells were decreased by inhibition of Src but not of Jak2. Gene expression profiling indicated that 21% of Stat5-regulated genes in prostate cancer cells were related to metastases, while 7.9% were related to proliferation and 3.9% to apoptosis. The work presented here provides the first evidence of Stat5 involvement in the induction of metastatic behavior of human prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Stat5 may provide a therapeutic target protein for disseminated prostate cancer.

The molecular mechanisms underlying progression of prostate cancer to the hormone-independent state are poorly understood. Signal transducer and activator of transcription 5a and 5b (Stat5a/b) is critical for the viability of human prostate cancer cells. We have previously shown that Stat5a/b is constitutively active in high-grade human prostate cancer, but not in normal prostate epithelium. Furthermore, activation of Stat5a/b in primary human prostate cancer predicted early disease recurrence. We show here that transcription factor Stat5a/b is active in 95% of clinical hormone-refractory human prostate cancers. We show for the first time that

Identification of the molecular changes that promote viability and metastatic behavior of prostate cancer is critical for the development of improved therapeutic interventions. Stat5a/b and Stat3 are both constitutively active in locally-confined and advanced prostate cancer, and both transcription factors have been reported to be critical for the viability of prostate cancer cells. We recently showed that Stat3 promotes metastatic behavior of human prostate cancer cells not only in vitro but also in an in vivo experimental metastases model. In this work, we compare side-by-side Stat5a/b versus Stat3 in the promotion of prostate cancer cell viability, tumor growth, and induction of metastatic colonization in vivo. Inhibition of Stat5a/b induced massive death of prostate cancer cells in culture and reduced both subcutaneous and orthotopic prostate tumor growth, whereas Stat3 had a predominant role over Stat5a/b in promoting metastases formation of prostate cancer cells in vivo in nude mice. The molecular mechanisms underlying the differential biological effects induced by these two transcription factors involve largely different sets of genes regulated by Stat5a/b versus Stat3 in human prostate cancer model systems. Of the two Stat5 homologs, Stat5b was more important for supporting growth of prostate cancer cells than Stat5a. This work provides the first mechanistic comparison of the biological effects induced by transcription factors Stat5a/b versus Stat3 in prostate cancer.

Purpose Progression of prostate cancer (PC) to the lethal castrate-resistant (CR) stage coincides with loss of responsiveness to androgen deprivation and requires development of novel therapies. We previously provided proof-of-concept that Stat5a/b is a therapeutic target protein for PC. Here we demonstrate that pharmacological targeting of Jak2-dependent Stat5a/b signaling by the Jak2 inhibitor AZD1480 blocks CR growth of PC. Experimental Design Efficacy of AZD1480 in disrupting Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling and decreasing PC cell viability was evaluated in PC cells. A unique PC xenograft mouse model (CWR22Pc), which mimics PC clinical progression in patients, was used to assess in vivo responsiveness of primary and CR PC to AZD1480. Patient-derived clinical PCs, grown ex vivo in organ explant cultures, were tested for responsiveness to AZD1480. Results AZD1480 robustly inhibited Stat5a/b phosphorylation, dimerization, nuclear translocation, DNA binding and transcriptional activity in PC cells. AZD1480 reduced PC cell viability sustained by Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling through induction of apoptosis, which was rescued by constitutively active Stat5a/b. In mice, pharmacological targeting of Stat5a/b by AZD1480 potently blocked growth of primary androgen-dependent as well as recurrent CR CWR22Pc xenograft tumors, and prolonged survival of tumor-bearing mice vs. vehicle or docetaxel-treated mice. Finally, 9 of 13 clinical PCs responded to AZD1480 by extensive apoptotic epithelial cell loss, concurrent with reduced levels of nuclear Stat5a/b. Conclusions We report the first evidence for efficacy of pharmacological targeting of Stat5a/b as a strategy to inhibit CR growth of PC, supporting further clinical development of Stat5a/b inhibitors as therapy for advanced PC.

Active Stat5a/b predicts early recurrence and disease-specific death in prostate cancer (PC), which both typically are caused by development of metastatic disease. Herein, we demonstrate that Stat5a/b induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of PC cells, as shown by Stat5a/b regulation of EMT marker expression (Twist1, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin, and fibronectin) in PC cell lines, xenograft tumors in vivo, and patient-derived PCs ex vivo using organ explant cultures. Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling induced functional end points of EMT as well, indicated by disruption of epithelial cell monolayers and increased migration and adhesion of PC cells to fibronectin. Knockdown of Twist1 suppressed Jak2-Stat5a/beinduced EMT properties of PC cells, which were rescued by re-introduction of Twist1, indicating that Twist1 mediates Stat5a/b-induced EMT in PC cells. While promoting EMT, Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling induced stemlike properties in PC cells, such as sphere formation and expression of cancer stem cell markers, including BMI1. Mechanistically, both Twist1 and BMI1 were critical for Stat5a/b induction of stem-like features, because genetic knockdown of Twist1 suppressed Stat5a/b-induced BMI1 expression and sphere formation in stem cell culture conditions, which were rescued by re-introduction of BMI1. By using human prolactin knock-in mice, we demonstrate that prolactin-Stat5a/b signaling promoted metastases formation of PC cells in vivo. In conclusion, our data support the concept that Jak2-Stat5a/b signaling promotes metastatic progression of PC by inducing EMT and stem cell properties in PC cells. Most prostate cancer (PC)erelated deaths are because of development of metastatic disease. A central process in metastatic dissemination of PC is epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), during which cancer cells attain more motile and invasive properties, invade through the basement membrane, and survive in systemic circulation. 1e3 Extravasation at distant organ sites is followed by adhesion of cancer cells to extracellular matrix proteins, such as fibronectin, 4e6 leading to formation of premetastatic niches and subsequent formation of macroscopic metastases. 7e9 Hallmarks of EMT in PC include disruption of adherens junctions through down-regulation of E-cadherin, 2 concomitant with a development of a migratory phenotype and up-regulation of mesenchymal markers, such as N-cadherin, vimentin, and fibronectin. 10,11 Loss of E-cadherin results from mutations, DNA methylation, or silencing of E-cadherin promoter