Tran Tuyen Thanh, Lee Keesook
Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, School of Biological Sciences and Technology, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea.
Cancers (Basel). 2022 Nov 21;14(22):5714. doi: 10.3390/cancers14225714.
JAG1 expression is upregulated in high-grade metastatic prostate carcinomas and associated with poor disease-free survival of patients with prostate cancer. Intriguingly, all JAG1-positive prostate carcinomas express JICD although JICD function in prostate cancer (PC) cells is poorly understood. In this study, we found that JICD overexpression increased the expression levels of AR, especially AR-Vs, in PC cell lines and significantly enhanced androgen-independent and androgen-dependent function of ARs. Interestingly, JICD overexpression upregulated the expression of the PCSC marker CD133 in PC cells as the expression of self-renewal markers; namely, NANOG and OCT3/4 increased. In addition, JICD overexpression highly increased the expression of anti-apoptotic BCL-XL protein, while it little affected the expression of apoptotic BIM protein. In 3D cell culture assays, the spheres formed by JICD-overexpressing PC subline cells (C4-2 and CWR22Rv1) were larger than those formed by control (EV) subline cells with undifferentiated morphology. Although JICD overexpression caused quiescence in cell proliferation, it activated the expression of components in PCSC-related signaling pathways, increased PC cell mobility, and promoted in vivo xenograft mouse tumorigenesis. Therefore, JICD may play a crucial role in enhancing androgen independence and promoting stem-like properties in PC cells and should be considered a novel target for CRPC and PCSC diagnostic therapy.
JAG1在高级别转移性前列腺癌中表达上调,并与前列腺癌患者的无病生存期较差相关。有趣的是,所有JAG1阳性的前列腺癌均表达JICD,尽管对前列腺癌细胞中JICD的功能了解甚少。在本研究中,我们发现JICD过表达可增加前列腺癌细胞系中AR的表达水平,尤其是AR-Vs,并显著增强AR的雄激素非依赖性和雄激素依赖性功能。有趣的是,JICD过表达上调了前列腺癌细胞中PCSC标志物CD133的表达,作为自我更新标志物的表达;即NANOG和OCT3/4的表达增加。此外,JICD过表达显著增加了抗凋亡BCL-XL蛋白的表达,而对凋亡BIM蛋白的表达影响较小。在3D细胞培养试验中,JICD过表达的前列腺癌亚系细胞(C4-2和CWR22Rv1)形成的球体比对照(EV)亚系细胞形成的球体更大,且形态未分化。尽管JICD过表达导致细胞增殖静止,但它激活了PCSC相关信号通路中各组分的表达,增加了前列腺癌细胞的迁移能力,并促进了体内异种移植小鼠的肿瘤发生。因此,JICD可能在增强前列腺癌细胞的雄激素非依赖性和促进干细胞样特性方面发挥关键作用,应被视为CRPC和PCSC诊断治疗的新靶点。