Background:The androgen receptor (AR) plays a critical role in prostate cancer development and progression. Results: Oncogenic PIM-1 kinases directly interact with AR and induce AR phosphorylation at multiple residues. Conclusion: PIM-1 kinases differentially modulate AR activity via phosphorylation-dependent recruitment of distinct ubiquitin E3 ligases. Significance: Our findings provide new insights into mechanisms by which AR activity may be regulated in prostate cancer cells.
Background: Drug resistance is one of the most prevalent causes of death in advanced prostate cancer patients. Combination therapies that target cancer cells via different mechanisms to overcome resistance have gained increased attention in recent years. However, the optimal drug combinations and the underlying mechanisms are yet to be fully explored. Aim and methods: The aim of this study is to investigate drug combinations that inhibit the growth of drug-resistant cells and determine the underlying mechanisms of their actions. In addition, we also established cell lines that are resistant to combination treatments and tested new compounds to overcome the phenomenon of double drug-resistance. Results: Our results show that the combination of enzalutamide (ENZ) and docetaxel (DTX) effectively inhibit the growth of prostate cancer cells that are resistant to either drug alone. The downregulation of transcription factor E2F1 plays a crucial role in cellular inhibition in response to the combined therapy. Notably, we found that the androgen receptor (AR) variant AR3 (a.k.a. AR-V7), but not AR full length (AR-FL), positively regulates E2F1 expression in these cells. E2F1 in turn regulates AR3 and forms a positive regulatory feedforward loop. We also established double drug-resistant cell lines that are resistant to ENZ+DTX combination therapy and found that the expression of both AR3 and E2F1 was restored in these cells. Furthermore, we identified that auranofin, an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, overcame drug resistance and inhibited the growth of drug-resistant prostate cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion and significance: This proof-of-principle study demonstrates that targeting the E2F1/AR3 feedforward loop via a combination therapy or a multi-targeting drug could circumvent castration resistance in prostate cancer.
Tubulin is an integral part of the cytoskeleton and plays a pivotal role in cellular signaling, maintenance, and division. β-tubulin is also the molecular target for taxane compounds such as docetaxel (DTX) and cabazitaxel (CTX), both first-line treatments for several solid cancers. Increased expression of Class III β-tubulin (TUBB3), a primarily neural isoform of β-tubulin, correlates with taxane resistance and poor prognosis. Although tyrosine kinase c-Src has been implicated to phosphorylate β-tubulins during both hematopoietic and neural differentiation, the mechanisms by which Src modulates tubulins functions are still poorly understood. Here, we report, for the first time, that TUBB3 is phosphorylated at Tyrosine 340 (Y340) by c-SRC in prostate cancer cells. We also showed that Y340 phosphorylation regulates TUBB3 protein stability and subcellular localization. Furthermore, we demonstrated that inhibition of SRC kinase activity compromises spindle stability in mitotic cells, at least partly due to the lack of TUBB3 Y340 phosphorylation. Given the importance of TUBB3 as a clinical biomarker of poor prognosis and drug resistance, characterization of TUBB3 posttranslational regulation could potentially serve as new biomarkers for disease recurrence and/or treatment failure.
Androgen receptor (AR) plays a pivotal role in prostate cancer. Regulation of AR transcriptional activity by post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation by multiple kinases, is well documented. Here, we report that two PIM-1 kinase isoforms which are upregulated during prostate cancer progression, namely PIM-1S and PIM-1L, modulate AR stability and transcriptional activity through differentially phosphorylating AR at Serine 213 (S213) and Threonine 850 (T850). Although both kinases are capable of interacting with and phosphorylating AR at S213, only PIM-1L could phosphorylate T850. We also showed that PIM-1S induced S213 phosphorylation destabilizes AR by recruiting the ubiquitin E3 ligase Mdm2 and promotes AR degradation in a cell cycle dependent manner, while PIM-1L-induced T850 phosphorylation stabilizes AR by recruiting the ubiquitin E3 ligase RNF6 and promotes AR-mediated transcription under low-androgen conditions. Furthermore, both PIM-1 isoforms could promote prostate cancer cell growth under low-androgen conditions. Our data suggest that these kinases regulate AR stability and transcriptional activity through recruitment of different functional partners in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. As AR turnover has been previously shown to be critical for cell cycle progression in prostate cancer cells, PIM-1 kinase isoforms may promote prostate cancer cell growth, at least in part, through modulating AR activity via distinct mechanisms. Citation Format: Douglas Linn, Xi Yang, Yingqiu Xie, Alan Alfano, Dhanraj Deshmukh, Xin Wang, Hermela Shimelis, Hegang Chen, Wei Li, Kexin Xu, Mingyuan Chen, Yun Qiu. Differential regulation of androgen receptor by PIM-1 kinases via phosphorylation-dependent recruitment of distinct ubiquitin E3 ligases. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4089. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4089
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