The androgen receptor (AR) plays a key role in progression to incurable androgen ablation-resistant prostate cancer (PCA). We have identified three novel AR splice variants lacking the ligand-binding domain (designated as AR3, AR4, and AR5) in hormone-insensitive PCA cells. AR3, one of the major splice variants expressed in human prostate tissues, is constitutively active, and its transcriptional activity is not regulated by androgens or antiandrogens. Immunohistochemistry analysis on tissue microarrays containing 429 human prostate tissue samples shows that AR3 is significantly up-regulated during PCA progression and AR3 expression level is correlated with the risk of tumor recurrence after radical prostatectomy. Overexpression of AR3 confers ablation-independent growth of PCA cells, whereas specific knockdown of AR3 expression (without altering AR level) in hormone-resistant PCA cells attenuates their growth under androgen-depleted conditions in both cell culture and xenograft models, suggesting an indispensable role of AR3 in ablation-independent growth of PCA cells. Furthermore, AR3 may play a distinct, yet essential, role in ablation-independent growth through the regulation of a unique set of genes, including AKT1, which are not regulated by the prototype AR. Our data suggest that aberrant expression of AR splice variants may be a novel mechanism underlying ablation independence during PCA progression, and AR3 may serve as a prognostic marker to predict patient outcome in response to hormonal therapy. Given that these novel AR splice variants are not inhibited by currently available antiandrogen drugs, development of new drugs targeting these AR isoforms may potentially be effective for treatment of ablation-resistant PCA. [Cancer Res 2009;69(6):2305-13]

Summary The androgen receptor (AR) plays a critical role in prostate cancer. We have identified an ubiquitin E3 ligase RNF6 as one of AR-associated proteins in a proteomic screen. RNF6 induces AR ubiquitination and promotes AR transcriptional activity. Specific knockdown of RNF6 or mutation of RNF6-induced ubiquitination acceptor sites on AR selectively alters expression of a subset of AR target genes and diminishes recruitment of AR and its coactivators to androgen-responsive elements present in the regulatory region of these genes. Furthermore, RNF6 is overexpressed in human hormone-refractory prostate cancer tissues and required for prostate cancer cell growth under androgen-depleted conditions. Our data suggest that RNF6-induced ubiquitination may regulate AR transcriptional activity and specificity through modulating co-factor recruitment.

BackgroundMicroRNA-200c (miR-200c) is one of the short noncoding RNAs that play crucial roles in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. It also acts as considerable modulator in the process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a cell development regulating process that affects tumor development and metastasis. However, the role of miR-200c in bladder cancer cells and its mechanism has not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the potential role of miR-200c in regulating EMT and how it contributed to bladder cancer cells in invasion, migration and proliferation.MethodsReal-time reverse transcription-PCR was used to identify and validate the differential expression of MiR-200c involved in EMT in 4 bladder cancer cell lines and clinical specimens. A list of potential miR-200 direct targets was identified through the TargetScan database. The precursor of miR-200c was over-expressed in UMUC-3 and T24 cells using a lentivirus construct, respectively. Protein expression and signaling pathway modulation were validated through Western blot analysis and confocal microscopy, whereas BMI-1 and E2F3, direct target of miR-200c, were validated by using the wild-type and mutant 3′-untranslated region BMI-1/E2F3 luciferase reporters.ResultsWe demonstrate that MiR-200c is down-regulated in bladder cancer specimens compared with adjacent ones in the same patient. Luciferase assays showed that the direct down-regulation of BMI-1 and E2F3 were miR-200c-dependent because mutations in the two putative miR-200c-binding sites have rescued the inhibitory effect. Over-expression of miR-200c in bladder cancer cells resulted in significantly decreased the capacities of cell invasion, migration and proliferation. miR-200c over-expression resulted in conspicuous down-regulation of BMI-1and E2F3 expression and in a concomitant increase in E-cadherin levels.ConclusionsmiR-200c appears to control the EMT process through BMI-1 in bladder cancer cells, and it inhibits their proliferation through down-regulating E2F3. The targets of miR-200c include BMI-1 and E2F3, which are a novel regulator of EMT and a regulator of proliferation, respectively.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-014-0305-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Mitophagy and microRNA both regulate the occurrence of neurodegenerative diseases and cancers. Results: MicroRNA-137, a hypoxia responsive microRNA, inhibits mitophagy via targeting two mitophagy receptors. Conclusion: A novel link between miR-137 and mitophagy has been revealed. Significance: Understanding mitophagy regulation and microRNA functions may provide new concepts to fight human diseases.

Drug resistance remains a clinical challenge in cancer treatment due to poor understanding of underlying mechanisms. We have established several drug-resistant prostate cancer cell lines by long-term culture in medium containing chemotherapeutic drugs. These resistant lines displayed a significant increase in side population cells due to overexpression of drug efflux pumps including ABCG2/BCRP and MDR1/Pgp. To uncover potential mechanisms underlying drug resistance, we performed microarray analysis to identify differentially expressed genes in 2 drug-resistant lines. We observed that POU5F1/OCT4, a transcription factor key to regulating pluripotency in embryonic stem cells, was upregulated in drug-resistant lines and accompanied by transcriptional activation of a set of its known target genes. Upregulation of OCT4 in drug-resistant cells was validated by RT-PCR and sequencing of PCR products as well as confirmation by Western blot and specific shRNA knockdown. Analysis of the regulatory region of POU5F1/OCT4 revealed a reduction of methylation in drug-resistant cell lines. Furthermore, these drug-resistant cells exhibited a significant increase in tumorigenicity in vivo. Subcutaneous inoculation of as few as 10 drug-resistant cells could initiate tumor formation in SCID mice, whereas no detectable tumors were observed from the parental line under similar conditions, suggesting that these drug-resistant cells may be enriched for tumor-initiating cells. Knocking down OCT4 expression by specific shRNAs attenuated growth of drug-resistant cells. Our data suggest that OCT4 re-expression in cancer cells may play an important role in carcinogenesis and provide one possible mechanism by which cancer cells acquire/maintain a drug-resistant phenotype.