Wang Jianqing, Wang Yu, Zhou Huihui, Yu Guopeng, Xu Huan, Gao Dajun, Li Minglun, Wang Yuzhuo, Xu Bin
Department of Urology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, China.
Vancouver Prostate Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Urologic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Transl Oncol. 2025 Apr;54:102320. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2025.102320. Epub 2025 Feb 24.
Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) marks the advanced phase of prostate malignancy, manifested through two principal subtypes: castration-resistant adenocarcinoma (CRPC-adeno) and neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). This study aims to identify unique central regulatory genes, assess the immunological landscape, and explore potential therapeutic strategies specifically tailored to NEPC. We discovered 1444 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) distinguishing between the two cancer types and identified 12 critical hub genes. Notably, CHST1, MPPED2, and RIPPLY3 emerged as closely associated with the immune cell infiltration pattern, establishing them as top candidates. Prognostic analysis highlighted the potential critical roles of CHST1 and MPPED2 in prostate cancer development, findings corroborated through in vitro and in vivo assays. Moreover, we validated the functions and expression levels of CHST1, MPPED2, and RIPPLY3 in NEPC using cell lines, animal models and human tissues. In the final step, we found that imatinib might be the drug specific to NEPC, which was further confirmed by in vitro cell assay. Our results revealed the clinical characteristics, molecular features, immune cell infiltration pattern in CRPC-adeno and NEPC, and identified and confirmed CHST1, MPPED2, and RIPPLY3 as the critical genes in the development in prostate cancer and NEPC. We also predicted and validated imatinib as the potential specific drugs to NEPC.
去势抵抗性前列腺癌(CRPC)标志着前列腺恶性肿瘤的晚期阶段,主要表现为两种主要亚型:去势抵抗性腺癌(CRPC-腺)和神经内分泌前列腺癌(NEPC)。本研究旨在识别独特的核心调控基因,评估免疫格局,并探索专门针对NEPC的潜在治疗策略。我们发现了1444个区分这两种癌症类型的差异表达基因(DEG),并确定了12个关键的枢纽基因。值得注意的是,CHST1、MPPED2和RIPPLY3与免疫细胞浸润模式密切相关,使其成为首要候选基因。预后分析突出了CHST1和MPPED2在前列腺癌发展中的潜在关键作用,体外和体内试验证实了这些发现。此外,我们使用细胞系、动物模型和人体组织验证了CHST1、MPPED2和RIPPLY3在NEPC中的功能和表达水平。在最后一步中,我们发现伊马替尼可能是NEPC的特异性药物,体外细胞试验进一步证实了这一点。我们的结果揭示了CRPC-腺和NEPC的临床特征、分子特征、免疫细胞浸润模式,并确定并证实CHST1、MPPED2和RIPPLY3是前列腺癌和NEPC发展中的关键基因。我们还预测并验证了伊马替尼是NEPC的潜在特异性药物。