Department of Cardiac Surgery, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Translational Medical Center for Stem Cell Therapy and Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; Department of Biological Sciences, Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2021 Jul 1;1867(7):166151. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2021.166151. Epub 2021 Apr 21.
Despite recent development of next-generation androgen receptor (AR) antagonists, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) remains incurable and requires deeper understanding through studies in suitable animal models. Prostate-specific deletion of Pten and Smad4 in mice recapitulated the disease progression of human prostate adenocarcinoma, including metastasis to lymph nodes and lung. Moreover, Pten/Smad4 tumors fostered an immunosuppressive microenvironment dominated by myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). However, the response of Pten/Smad4 tumors to androgen deprivation and anti-androgen therapies has not been described. Here, we report that the combination of surgical castration and enzalutamide treatment in Pten/Smad4 mice slowed down the tumor growth and prolonged the median survival of the mice for 8 weeks. Treatment-naïve and castration-resistant primary tumors exhibited comparable levels of immune infiltrations with the exception of reduced monocytic MDSCs in CRPC. RNA profiling of treatment-naïve and castration-resistant primary tumors revealed largely preserved transcriptome with modest expressional alterations of collagen-related and immune-related genes, among which CC chemokine receptor type 2 (Ccr2) downregulation and predicted negative activation in CRPC was consistent with reduced monocytic MDSC infiltration. Importantly, significant transcriptomic reprograming was observed in lung metastatic CRPC compared with primary CRPC and enriched for immune-related and coagulation-related pathways. At the individual gene level, we validated the expression changes of some of the most upregulated (Cd36, Bmp5, Bmp6, Etv5, Prex2, Ptprb, Egfl6, Itga8 and Cxcl12) and downregulated genes (Cxcl9 and Adamts5). Together, this study uncovers the inherent activity of Pten/Smad4 tumors to progress to CRPC and highlights potentially targetable transcriptomic signatures associated with CRPC metastasis.
尽管新一代雄激素受体 (AR) 拮抗剂不断发展,但转移性去势抵抗性前列腺癌 (CRPC) 仍然无法治愈,需要通过合适的动物模型进行深入研究。在小鼠中特异性敲除前列腺中的 Pten 和 Smad4,可重现人类前列腺腺癌的疾病进展,包括淋巴结和肺部转移。此外,Pten/Smad4 肿瘤促进了以髓源抑制细胞 (MDSCs) 为主的免疫抑制微环境。然而,Pten/Smad4 肿瘤对去势和抗雄激素治疗的反应尚未被描述。在这里,我们报告称,在 Pten/Smad4 小鼠中,手术去势和恩扎鲁胺联合治疗减缓了肿瘤生长,并将小鼠的中位生存时间延长了 8 周。未经治疗和去势抵抗的原发性肿瘤的免疫浸润水平相当,除了 CRPC 中单核细胞 MDSC 减少。对未经治疗和去势抵抗的原发性肿瘤的 RNA 谱分析显示,大多数转录组基本保持不变,胶原相关和免疫相关基因的表达略有改变,其中 CC 趋化因子受体 2 (Ccr2) 在 CRPC 中的下调和预测的负激活与单核细胞 MDSC 浸润减少一致。重要的是,与原发性 CRPC 相比,在肺转移性 CRPC 中观察到明显的转录组重编程,并富集了免疫相关和凝血相关途径。在个体基因水平上,我们验证了一些上调基因(Cd36、Bmp5、Bmp6、Etv5、Prex2、Ptprb、Egfl6、Itga8 和 Cxcl12)和下调基因(Cxcl9 和 Adamts5)的表达变化。综上所述,这项研究揭示了 Pten/Smad4 肿瘤内在的进展为 CRPC 的活性,并强调了与 CRPC 转移相关的潜在可靶向转录组特征。