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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

miRNA Expression Analyses in Prostate Cancer Clinical Tissues
Published on: September 8, 2015
Normal and prostate cancer cells display distinct molecular profiles of alpha-tubulin posttranslational modifications
Karel Soucek1, Andrés Kamaid, Anh D Phung
1Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
Background:
Multiple diverse posttranslational modifications of alpha-tubulin such as detyrosination, further cleavage of the penultimate glutamate residue (Delta2-tubulin), acetylation, and polyglutamylation increase the structural and functional diversity of microtubules.
Methods:
Herein, we characterized the molecular profile of alpha-tubulin posttranslational modifications in normal human prostate epithelial cells (PrEC), immortalized normal prostate epithelial cells (PZ-HPV-7), androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells (LNCaP), transitional androgen-independent prostate cancer cells (LNCaP-cds and CWR22Rv1), and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells (PC3).
Results:
Compared to PrEC and PZ-HPV-7 cells, all cancer cells exhibited elevated levels of detyrosinated and polyglutamylated alpha-tubulin, that was paralleled by decreased protein levels of tubulin tyrosine ligase (TTL). In contrast, PrEC and PZ-HPV-7 cells expressed markedly higher levels of Delta2-tubulin. Whereas alpha-tubulin acetylation levels were generally equivalent in all the cell lines, PC3 cells did not display detectable levels of Ac-tubulin.
Conclusion:
These data may reveal novel biomarkers of prostate cancer and new therapeutic targets.
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