Phosphorylation of LIFR promotes prostate cancer progression by activating the AKT pathway

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common solid organ malignancy among men, outnumbering both lung and colorectal cancer, and it is the second leading cause of male tumor-related death in the United States due to high metastasis. Recently, leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR) has been found to play roles in multiple types of cancer. However, the roles of LIFR in the progression of PCa remain to be revealed. In this study, we found that LIFR plays an oncogenic role in PCa. The phosphorylation of LIFR at S1044 contributes to subsequent activation of the AKT pathway, inducing the expression of a series of proliferation and metastatic genes. Additionally, LIFR-S1044 is phosphorylated by ERK2 but not ERK1. The signal intensity of pLIFR-S1044 and pAKT S473 in PCa tissue displays a tight positive correlation. The ERK2/LIFR/AKT axis modulates PCa progression and offers a promising therapeutic and diagnostic target for PCa.