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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

Senescent fibroblasts are known to promote tumor growth. However, the exact mechanism remains largely unknown. An important clue comes from recent studies linking autophagy with the onset of senescence. Thus, autophagy and senescence may be part of the same physiological process, known as the autophagy-senescence transition (AST). To test this hypothesis, human fibroblasts immortalized with telomerase (hTERT-BJ1) were stably transfected with autophagy genes (BNIP3, CTSB or ATG16L1). Their overexpression was sufficient to induce a constitutive autophagic phenotype, with features of mitophagy, mitochondrial dysfunction and a shift toward aerobic glycolysis, resulting in L-lactate and ketone body production. Autophagic fibroblasts also showed features of senescence, with increased p21(WAF1/CIP1), a CDK inhibitor, cellular hypertrophy and increased β-galactosidase activity. Thus, we genetically validated the existence of the autophagy-senescence transition. Importantly, autophagic-senescent fibroblasts promoted tumor growth and metastasis, when co-injected with human breast cancer cells, independently of angiogenesis. Autophagic-senescent fibroblasts stimulated mitochondrial metabolism in adjacent cancer cells, when the two cell types were co-cultured, as visualized by MitoTracker staining. In particular, autophagic ATG16L1 fibroblasts, which produced large amounts of ketone bodies (3-hydroxy-butyrate), had the strongest effects and promoted metastasis by up to 11-fold. Conversely, expression of ATG16L1 in epithelial cancer cells inhibited tumor growth, indicating that the effects of autophagy are compartment-specific. Thus, autophagic-senescent fibroblasts metabolically promote tumor growth and metastasis, by paracrine production of high-energy mitochondrial fuels. Our current studies provide genetic support for the importance of “two-compartment tumor metabolism” in driving tumor growth and metastasis via a simple energy transfer mechanism. Finally, β-galactosidase, a known lysosomal enzyme and biomarker of senescence, was localized to the tumor stroma in human breast cancer tissues, providing in vivo support for our hypothesis. Bioinformatic analysis of genome-wide transcriptional profiles from tumor stroma, isolated from human breast cancers, also validated the onset of an autophagy-senescence transition. Taken together, these studies establish a new functional link between host aging, autophagy, the tumor microenvironment and cancer metabolism.

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It is becoming increasingly apparent that the tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in human breast cancer onset and progression. Therefore, we isolated cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) from human breast cancer lesions and studied their properties, as compared with normal mammary fibroblasts (NFs) isolated from the same patient. Here, we demonstrate that 8 out of 11 CAFs show dramatic downregulation of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) protein expression; Cav-1 is a well-established marker that is normally decreased during the oncogenic transformation of fibroblasts. Next, we performed gene expression profiling studies (DNA microarray) and established a CAF gene expression signature. Interestingly, the expression signature associated with CAFs encompasses a large number of genes that are regulated via the RB-pathway. The CAF gene signature is also predictive of poor clinical outcome in breast cancer patients that were treated with tamoxifen mono-therapy, indicating that CAFs may be useful for predicting the response to hormonal therapy. Finally, we show that replacement of Cav-1 expression in CAFs (using a cell-permeable peptide approach) is sufficient to revert their hyper-proliferative phenotype and prevent RB hyper-phosphorylation. Taken together, these studies highlight the critical role of Cav-1 downregulation in maintaining the abnormal phenotype of human breast cancer-associated fibroblasts.

The role of autophagy in tumorigenesis is controversial. Both autophagy inhibitors (chloroquine) and autophagy promoters (rapamycin) block tumorigenesis by unknown mechanism(s). This is called the "Autophagy Paradox". we have recently reported a simple solution to this paradox. we demonstrated that epithelial cancer cells use oxidative stress to induce autophagy in the tumor microenvironment. As a consequence, the autophagic tumor stroma generates recycled nutrients that can then be used as chemical building blocks by anabolic epithelial cancer cells. This model results in a net energy transfer from the tumor stroma to epithelial cancer cells (an energy imbalance), thereby promoting tumor growth. This net energy transfer is both unilateral and vectorial, from the tumor stroma to the epithelial cancer cells, representing a true host-parasite relationship. we have termed this new paradigm "The Autophagic Tumor Stroma Model of Cancer Cell Metabolism" or "Battery-Operated Tumor Growth." in this sense, autophagy in the tumor stroma serves as a "battery" to fuel tumor growth, progression and metastasis, independently of angiogenesis. Using this model, the systemic induction of autophagy will prevent epithelial cancer cells from using recycled nutrients, while the systemic inhibiton of autophagy will prevent stromal cells from producing recycled nutrients-both effectively "starving" cancer cells. we discuss the idea that tumor cells could become resistant to the systemic induction of autophagy by the upregulation of natural, endogenous autophagy inhibitors in cancer cells. Alternatively, tumor cells could also become resistant to the systemic induction of autophagy by the genetic silencing/deletion of pro-autophagic molecules, such as Beclin1. if autophagy resistance develops in cancer cells, then the systemic inhibition of autophagy would provide a therapeutic solution to this type of drug resistance, as it would still target autophagy in the tumor stroma. As such, an anti-cancer therapy that combines the alternating use of both autophagy promoters and autophagy inhibitors would be expected to prevent the onset of drug resistance. we also discuss why anti-angiogenic therapy has been found to promote tumor recurrence, progression and metastasis. More specifically, anti-angiogenic therapy would induce autophagy in the tumor stroma via the induction of stromal hypoxia, thereby converting a non-aggressive tumor type to a "lethal" aggressive tumor phenotype. Thus, uncoupling the metabolic parasitic relationship between cancer cells and an autophagic tumor stroma may hold great promise for anti-cancer therapy. Finally, we believe that autophagy in the tumor stroma is the local microscopic counterpart of systemic wasting (cancer-associated cachexia), which is associated with advanced and metastatic cancers. Cachexia in cancer patients is not due to decreased energy intake, but instead involves an increased basal metabolic rate and increased energy expenditures, resulting in a negative energy balance. importantly, when tumors...

Recently, we reported that human breast cancer-associated fibroblasts show functional inactivation of the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor and down-regulation of caveolin-1 (Cav-1) protein expression. However, it remains unknown whether loss of Cav-1 is sufficient to confer functional RB inactivation in mammary fibroblasts. To establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, mammary stromal fibroblasts (MSFs) were prepared from Cav-1 ؊/؊ null mice and subjected to phenotypic analysis. Here, we provide evidence that Cav-1 ؊/؊ MSFs share many characteristics with human cancer-associated fibroblasts. The Cav-1 ؊/؊ MSF transcriptome significantly overlaps with human cancerassociated fibroblasts; both show a nearly identical profile of RB/E2F-regulated genes that are up-regulated, which is consistent with RB inactivation. This Cav-1

Dystrophin, the protein product of the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene, is absent in the skeletal muscle of DMD patients and mdx mice. At the plasma membrane of skeletal muscle fibers, dystrophin associates with a multimeric protein complex, termed the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC). Protein members of this complex are normally absent or greatly reduced in dystrophin-deficient skeletal muscle fibers, and are thought to undergo degradation through an unknown pathway. As such, we reasoned that inhibition of the proteasomal degradation pathway might rescue the expression and subcellular localization of dystrophin-associated proteins. To test this hypothesis, we treated mdx mice with the wellcharacterized proteasomal inhibitor MG-132. First, we locally injected MG-132 into the gastrocnemius muscle, and observed the outcome after 24 hours. Next, we performed systemic treatment using an osmotic pump that allowed us to deliver different concentrations of the proteasomal inhibitor, over an 8-day period. By immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis, we show that administration of the proteasomal inhibitor MG-132 effectively rescues the expression levels and plasma membrane localization of dystrophin, ␤-dystroglycan, ␣-dystroglycan, and ␣-sarcoglycan in skeletal muscle fibers from mdx mice. Furthermore, we show that systemic treatment with the proteasomal inhibitor 1) reduces muscle membrane damage, as revealed by vital staining (with Evans blue dye) of the diaphragm and gastrocnemius muscle isolated from treated mdx mice, and 2) ameliorates the histopathological signs of muscular dystrophy, as judged by hematoxylin and eosin staining of muscle biopsies taken from treated mdx mice. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is one of the most prevalent and severe inherited diseases of childhood, characterized by progressive muscular wasting and weakness. The deficient gene product, dystrophin, 1 is a peripheral membrane protein of ϳ426 kd, which is expressed in muscle tissues and the brain. At the plasma membrane, dystrophin associates with a large multimeric complex, termed the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC). 2 The DGC is composed of two subcomplexes: the dystroglycan complex (␣ and ␤ subunits) and the sarcoglycan complex (␣, ␤, ␥, and ␦ subunits). The Nterminal region of dystrophin interacts directly with the cytoskeletal protein actin, while the dystrophin C-terminal domain binds to the plasma membrane through interactions with ␤-dystroglycan. As such, dystrophin is thought