The androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) to systematically suppress/reduce androgens binding to the androgen receptor (AR) has been the standard therapy for prostate cancer (PCa); yet, most of ADT eventually fails leading to the recurrence of castration resistant PCa. Here, we found that the PCa patients who received ADT had increased PCa stem/progenitor cell population. The addition of the anti-androgen, Casodex, or AR-siRNA in various PCa cells led to increased stem/progenitor cells, whereas, in contrast, the addition of functional AR led to decreased stem/progenitor cell population but increased non-stem/progenitor cell population, suggesting that AR functions differentially in PCa stem/progenitor vs. non-stem/progenitor cells. Therefore, the current ADT might result in an undesired expansion of PCa stem/progenitor cell population, which explains why this therapy fails. Using various human PCa cell lines and three different mouse models, we concluded that targeting PCa non-stem/progenitor cells with AR degradation enhancer ASC-J9 and targeting PCa stem/progenitor cells with 5-azathioprine and γ-tocotrienol resulted in a significant suppression of the tumors at the castration resistant stage. This suggests that a combinational therapy that simultaneously targets both stem/progenitor and non-stem/progenitor cells will lead to better therapeutic efficacy and may become a new therapy to battle the PCa before and after castration resistant stages.

ABSTRACT:Integrins play significant roles in mechanical responses of cells on extracellular matrix (ECM). We studied the roles of integrins and ECM proteins (fibronectin [FN] [JNK], and p38), and expressions of Egr-1, c-fos, Cox-2, and OPN were determined. In MG63 cells, shear stress induces sustained associations of ␣ v ␤ 3 and ␤ 1 with Shc when seeded on FN, but sustained associations of only ␤ 1 with Shc when seeded on COL1/LM. Shear inductions of MAPKs and bone formation-related genes were sustained (24 h) in cells on FN, but some of these responses were transient in cells on COL1/LM. The shear activations of ERK, JNK, and p38 were mediated by integrins and Shc, and these pathways differentially modulated the downstream bone formation-related gene expression. Our findings showed that ␤ 1 integrin plays predominant roles for shear-induced signaling and gene expression in osteoblast-like MG63 cells on FN, COL1, and LM and that ␣ v ␤ 3 also plays significant roles for such responses in cells on FN. The ␤ 1 /Shc association leads to the activation of ERK, which is critical for shear induction of bone formation-related genes in osteoblast-like cells.

Clinical reports show males have a higher bladder cancer (BCa) incidence than females. The sexual difference of BCa occurrence suggests that estrogen and its receptors may affect BCa development. Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) is the classic receptor to convey estrogen signaling, however, the function of ERα in BCa development remains largely unknown. To understand the in vivo role of ERα in BCa development, we generated total and urothelial specific ERα knockout mice (ERαKO) and used the pre-carcinogen BBN to induce BCa. Earlier reports showed that ERα promotes breast and ovarian cancers in females. Surprisingly and of clinical importance, our results showed that ERα inhibits BCa development and loss of the ERα gene results in an earlier onset and higher incidence of BBN-induced in vivo mouse BCa. Supportively, carcinogen induced malignant transformation ability was reduced in ERα expressing urothelial cells as compared to ERα negative cells. Mechanism studies suggest that ERα could control the expression of INPP4B to reduce AKT activity and consequently reduce BCa cell growth. In addition, IHC staining of clinical sample analyses show that INPP4B expression, in correlation with reduced ERα, is significantly reduced in human BCa specimens. Together, this is the first report using the in vivo cre-loxP gene knockout mouse model to characterize ERα roles in BCa development. Our studies provide multiple in vitro cell studies and in vivo animal model data as well as human BCa tissue analyses to prove ERα plays a protective role in BCa initiation and growth at least partly via modulating the INPP4B/Akt pathway.

The prostate cancer (PCa) microenvironment contains active stromal cells known as cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) that may play important roles in influencing tumor progression. Here we studied the role of CAF estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and found that it could protect against PCa invasion. Immunohistochemistry on prostatectomy specimens showed that PCa patients with ERα-positive stroma had a significantly lower risk for biochemical recurrence. In vitro invasion assays further confirmed that the stromal ERα was able to reduce PCa cell invasion. Dissection of the molecular mechanism revealed that the CAF ERα could function through a CAF-epithelial interaction via selectively upregulating thrombospondin 2 (Thbs2) and downregulating matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) at the protein and messenger RNA levels. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays further showed that ERα could bind to an estrogen response element on the promoter of Thbs2. Importantly, knockdown of Thbs2 led to increased MMP3 expression and interruption of the ERα mediated invasion suppression, providing further evidence of an ERα-Thbs2-MMP3 axis in CAF. In vivo studies using athymic nude mice injected with CWR22Rv1 (22Rv1) PCa epithelial cells and CAF cells ± ERα also confirmed that mice coimplanted with PCa cells and CAF ERα+ cells had less tumor foci in the pelvic lymph nodes, less metastases, and tumors showed less angiogenesis, MMP3, and MMP9 (an MMP3 downstream target) positive staining. Together, these data suggest that CAF ERα could play protective roles in suppressing PCa metastasis. Our results may lead to developing new and alternative therapeutic approaches to battle PCa via controlling ERα signaling in CAF.

Cell cycle regulation by differentiation signals is critical for eukaryote development. We investigated the roles of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4, an important stimulator of osteoblast differentiation and bone formation, in regulating cell cycle distribution in four osteoblast-like cell lines and mouse primary osteoblasts, and the underlying mechanisms. In all cells used, BMP-4 induced G(0)/G(1) arrest. The molecular basis of the BMP-4 effect was analyzed, and the presentation on molecular mechanism is focused on human MG63 cells. BMP-4 induced p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1) expressions and hence cell differentiation but had no effects on the expressions of cyclins A, B1, D1, and E, cyclin-dependent protein kinase-2, -4, and -6. Using specific small interfering RNA (siRNA), we found that BMP-4-induced G(0)/G(1) arrest, and p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1) expressions were mediated by BMP receptor type IA (BMPRIA)-specific Sma- and Mad-related protein (Smad)1/5. BMP-4 induced transient phosphorylations of ERK; transfection of MG63 cells with ERK2, but not ERK1, -specific siRNA inhibited the BMP-4-induced responses in MG63 cells. Pretreatment of MG63 cells with Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser, which blocks the cell-extracellular matrix interaction, or transfection with beta(3) integrin-specific siRNA inhibited BMP-4-induced ERK and Smad1/5 phosphorylations. BMP-4 induced transient increases in associations of beta(3)-integrin with focal adhesion kinase and Shc, the dominant-negative mutants of which inhibited BMP-4-induced ERK and Smad1/5 phosphorylations. Our results indicate that BMP-4 induces G(0)/G(1) arrest and hence differentiation in osteoblast-like cells through increased expressions of p21(CIP1) and p27(KIP1), which are mediated by BMPRIA-specific Smad1/5. The extracellular matrix/beta(3) integrin/ focal adhesion kinase/Shc/ERK2 signaling pathway is involved in these BMP-4-induced responses in osteoblast-like cells.