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Atg7 cooperates with Pten loss to drive prostate cancer tumor growth

Urmila Santanam1, Whitney Banach-Petrosky1, Cory Abate-Shen2

  • 1Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, USA;

Genes & Development
|February 18, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Autophagy, a cellular recycling process, is crucial for prostate cancer growth. Inhibiting autophagy significantly delays both early and advanced prostate tumor progression in a new mouse model.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Cellular Biology

Background:

  • Autophagy is a key cellular process for stress tolerance and metabolism.
  • Understanding autophagy's role is vital for developing new prostate cancer therapies.
  • Prostate cancer, particularly castrate-resistant forms, requires novel treatment strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of autophagy in prostate cancer progression.
  • To develop and utilize a novel genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) for studying prostate cancer.
  • To assess the impact of autophagy deficiency on both castrate-sensitive and castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

Main Methods:

  • Generated a GEMM with inducible, prostate-specific deficiency in Pten and autophagy-related-7 (Atg7) genes.
  • Assessed tumor progression in both castrate-naïve and castrate-resistant conditions.
  • Analyzed tumor phenotypes, including endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress markers.

Main Results:

  • Atg7 deficiency resulted in an autophagy-deficient phenotype.
  • Autophagy deficiency significantly delayed Pten-deficient prostate tumor progression.
  • Atg7-deficient tumors exhibited increased ER stress, indicating impaired protein homeostasis management.

Conclusions:

  • Autophagy is essential for both castrate-naïve and castrate-resistant prostate cancer growth.
  • The developed GEMM serves as a valuable model for studying autophagy inhibition therapies.
  • Targeting autophagy presents a potential therapeutic strategy for advanced prostate cancer, possibly in combination with other treatments.
Keywords:
ER stressautophagycastrate resistantprostate cancer

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