Functional impairment of the tumour-suppressor PTEN is common in primaryprostate cancer and has been linked to relapse post-radiotherapy (RT). Pre-clinical modelling supports elevated CXC-chemokine signaling as a critical mediator of PTEN-depleted disease progression and therapeutic resistance. We assessed the correlation of PTEN-deficiency with CXC-chemokine signaling and its association with clinical outcomes. Gene expression analysis characterized a PTEN LOW /CXCR1 HIGH /CXCR2 HIGH cluster of tumors that associates with earlier timeto-biochemical recurrence (HR 5.87 and HR 2.65 respectively) and development of systemic metastasis (HR 3.51). In vitro, CXCL-signaling was further amplified following exposure of PTEN-deficient prostate cancer cell lines to ionizing radiation (IR). Inhibition of CXCR1/2-signaling in PTEN-depleted cell-based models increased IR-sensitivity. In vivo, administration of a CXCR1/2-targeted pepducin (x1/2pal-i3), orCXCR2-specific antagonist (AZD5069), in combination with IR to PTEN-deficient xenografts attenuated tumor growth and progression compared to control or IR alone. Post-mortem analysis confirmed that x1/2pal-i3 administration attenuated IRinduced CXCL-signaling and anti-apoptotic protein expression. Interventions targeting CXC-chemokine signaling may provide an effective strategy to combine with radiotherapy, in both locally-advanced and oligometastatic-prostate cancers, with known presence of PTEN-deficient foci.Thus, we adopted the hypothesis that exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) would similarly induce chemokine-signaling and that this would have a profound impact in modulating the sensitivity of PTEN-deficient tumors to radiation.The objective of this comprehensive study, employing clinical datasets and established in vitro and in vivo models, was to characterize whether stress-induced potentiation of CXCR1/2-signaling may underpin the adverse response of PTENdeficient prostate cancer to radiation and to potentially explain biological mechanisms related to increased clinical relapse reported in PTEN-deficient tumors.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cell cultureAuthenticated DU145, LNCaP, C42, C42B, PC3 and 22Rv1 CaP cells were obtained from ATCC. DU145 cells were manipulated as previously described to generate isogenic PTEN-expressing NT01 cells and PTEN-deficient sh11.02 cells (Maxwell et al., 2013). PC3 were manipulated as previously described so that PTEN-expression can be reconstituted following exposure to tetracycline (Maxwell et al., 2013). PTENdepleted 22RV1 cells were generated following lentiviral transfection of HuSh-29 pre-designed PTEN shRNA pGFP-V-RS constructs (Origene, Rockville, MD, USA), and selected under puromycin selection pressure at a final concentration of 0.5 μg/ml. Cell line authenticity was confirmed by STR genotyping (July 2019) and mycoplasma testing was performed every 4-6 weeks (MycoAlert, Lonza).
ELISACells were plated into six-well plates at a density of 5 x 10 5 cells per well and allowed to adhere overnight. After 24H, cells were irradiated and med...