Castration resistance of prostate cancer cells caused by castration-induced oxidative stress through Twist1 and androgen receptor overexpression

Oncogene. 2010 Jan 14;29(2):237-50. doi: 10.1038/onc.2009.322. Epub 2009 Oct 5.

Abstract

There are few successful therapies for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Recently, CRPC has been thought to result from augmented androgen/androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathway, for most of which AR overexpression has been observed. In this study, Twist1, a member of basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors as well as AR was upregulated in response to hydrogen peroxide, and the response to which was abolished by an addition of N-acetyl-L-cysteine and Twist1 knockdown. In addition, castration-resistant LNCaP derivatives and hydrogen peroxide-resistant LNCaP derivatives exhibited a similar phenotype to each other. Then, both castration and AR knockdown increased intracellular reactive oxygen species level. Moreover, Twist1 was shown to regulate AR expression through binding to E-boxes in AR promoter region. Silencing of Twist1 suppressed cell growth of AR-expressing LNCaP cells as well as castration-resistant LNCaP derivatives by inducing cell-cycle arrest at G1 phase and cellular apoptosis. These findings indicated that castration-induced oxidative stress may promote AR overexpression through Twist1 overexpression, which could result in a gain of castration resistance. Modulation of castration-induced oxidative stress or Twist1/AR signaling might be a useful strategy for developing a novel therapeutics in prostate cancer, even in CRPC, which remains dependent on AR signaling by overexpressing AR.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylcysteine / pharmacology
  • Apoptosis
  • Binding Sites
  • Blotting, Western
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm
  • Free Radical Scavengers / pharmacology
  • G1 Phase
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / drug effects
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen Peroxide / pharmacology
  • Male
  • Nuclear Proteins / genetics*
  • Nuclear Proteins / metabolism
  • Orchiectomy
  • Oxidants / pharmacology
  • Oxidative Stress*
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / genetics
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / pathology
  • Protein Binding
  • RNA Interference
  • Receptors, Androgen / genetics*
  • Receptors, Androgen / metabolism
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Twist-Related Protein 1 / genetics*
  • Twist-Related Protein 1 / metabolism

Substances

  • Free Radical Scavengers
  • Nuclear Proteins
  • Oxidants
  • Receptors, Androgen
  • TWIST1 protein, human
  • Twist-Related Protein 1
  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Acetylcysteine