Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UNIPROT:P06889 (Mol)
630,302 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Treatment for prostatic adenocarcinoma is reliant on the initial androgen dependence of this tumor type. The goal of therapy is to eliminate androgen receptor activity, either through direct inhibition of the receptor or through inhibition of androgen synthesis. Although this course of therapy is initially effective, androgen-refractory tumors ultimately arise and lead to patient morbidity. Factors contributing to the transition from a state of androgen dependence to the androgen-refractory state are poorly understood, but clinical evidence in androgen-refractory tumors suggests that the androgen receptor is inappropriately activated in these cells. Thus, the mechanisms that contribute to inappropriate (androgen-independent) activation of the androgen receptor (AR) is an area of intensive research. Here we demonstrate that bisphenol A (BPA), a polycarbonate plastic monomer and established xenoestrogen, initiates androgen-independent proliferation in human prostatic adenocarcinoma (LNCaP) cells. The mitogenic capacity of BPA occurred in the nanomolar range, indicating that little BPA is required to stimulate proliferation. We show that BPA stimulated nuclear translocation of the tumor-derived receptor (AR-T877A), albeit with delayed kinetics compared with dihydrotestosterone. This translocation event was followed by specific DNA binding at androgen response elements, as shown by electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Moreover, the ability of BPA to stimulate AR-T877A activity was demonstrated by reporter assays and by analysis of an endogenous AR target gene, prostate-specific antigen. Thus, BPA is able to activate AR-T877A in the absence of androgens. Lastly, full mitogenic function of BPA is dependent on activation of the tumor-derived AR-T877A. These data implicate BPA as an inappropriate mitogen for prostatic adenocarcinoma cells and provide the impetus to study the consequence of BPA exposure on prostate cancer.
Mol Cancer Ther 2002 May
PMID:The xenoestrogen bisphenol A induces inappropriate androgen receptor activation and mitogenesis in prostatic adenocarcinoma cells. 1247 69

Blood serum is a complex body fluid that contains various proteins ranging in concentration over at least 9 orders of magnitude. Using a combination of mass spectrometry technologies with improvements in sample preparation, we have performed a proteomic analysis with submilliliter quantities of serum and increased the measurable concentration range for proteins in blood serum beyond previous reports. We have detected 490 proteins in serum by on-line reversed-phase microcapillary liquid chromatography coupled with ion trap mass spectrometry. To perform this analysis, immunoglobulins were removed from serum using protein A/G, and the remaining proteins were digested with trypsin. Resulting peptides were separated by strong cation exchange chromatography into distinct fractions prior to analysis. This separation resulted in a 3-5-fold increase in the number of proteins detected in an individual serum sample. With this increase in the number of proteins identified we have detected some lower abundance serum proteins (ng/ml range) including human growth hormone, interleukin-12, and prostate-specific antigen. We also used SEQUEST to compare different protein databases with and without filtering. This comparison is plotted to allow for a quick visual assessment of different databases as a subjective measure of analytical quality. With this study, we have performed the most extensive analysis of serum proteins to date and laid the foundation for future refinements in the identification of novel protein biomarkers of disease.
Mol Cell Proteomics 2002 Dec
PMID:Toward a human blood serum proteome: analysis by multidimensional separation coupled with mass spectrometry. 1254 31

The human prostate cancer cell line LNCaP bears functional membrane testosterone receptors, which modify the actin cytoskeleton and increase the secretion of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) within minutes. Membrane steroid receptors are, indeed, a newly identified element of steroid action that is different from the classical intracellular sites. In the present work, using a nonpermeable analog of testosterone (testosterone-BSA), we investigated the signaling pathway that is triggered by the membrane testosterone receptors' activation and leads to actin cytoskeleton reorganization. We report that exposure of cells to testosterone-BSA resulted in phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), the association of FAK with the phosphatidylinositol-3 (PI-3) kinase, and the subsequent activation of the latter as well as the activation of the small guanosine triphosphatases Cdc42/Rac1. Pretreatment of cells with the specific PI-3 kinase inhibitor wortmannin abolished both the activation of the small guanosine triphosphatases and the alterations of actin cytoskeleton, whereas it did not affect the phosphorylation of FAK. These findings indicate that PI-3 kinase is activated downstream of FAK and upstream of Cdc42/Rac1, which subsequently regulate the actin organization. Moreover, wortmannin diminished the secretion of PSA, implying that the signaling events described above are responsible for the testosterone-BSA-induced PSA secretion. Our results are discussed under the prism of a possible implication of these membrane receptors in prostate cancer chemotherapy.
Mol Endocrinol 2003 May
PMID:A rapid, nongenomic, signaling pathway regulates the actin reorganization induced by activation of membrane testosterone receptors. 1255 77

The data considered in the paper indicate that a tumor clone resulting from cell transformation, in order to develop, should overcome a microenvironmental constraint. This destroys intercellular contacts and cell interactions with extracellular matrix required for induction and maintenance of epithelium differentiation. The possible reasons for this lie in mutations of genes that control cell adhesion molecules and integrins, as well as proteases secreted by a tumor. These events lead to partial loss of differentiation antigens by a cell or to their incorrect localization in a cell. Simultaneously, the expression of embryo-specific genes is unblocked, leading to overexpression of embryonic antigens and their abnormal secretion into blood, which results in appearance of oncofetal markers in blood. Discussed from this point of view are alpha-fetoprotein, the carcinoembryonic antigen, and the prostate-specific antigen, which are used as tumor markers.
Mol Biol (Mosk)
PMID:[Differentiation antigens in tumors: dependence on carcinogenesis mechanisms and progression (a hypothesis)]. 1262 42

Androgen ablation has been the standard treatment for metastasized prostate cancer. In most cases, however, prostate cancer cells eventually lose androgen dependency and become refractory to the conventional endocrine therapy. Androgen-independent prostate cancer is characterized by a heterogeneous loss of androgen receptor (AR) expression among tumor cells. Prostate-specific promoters such as prostate-specific antigen and rat probasin (rPB) promoters have been examined in the development of gene therapy targeted to prostate cancer. However, those promoters require binding of the androgen-AR complex to the androgen-response element and are active only in the androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell lines and not in the androgen-independent cell lines. To target transgene expression in androgen-independent prostate cancer, we designed a prostate-specific promoter that is activated by the retinoids-retinoid receptor complex instead of the androgen-AR complex. The modified rPB promoters expressed transgenes in response to retinoid in both androgen-dependent and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells and not in other cancer cell lines or in human normal cells, in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the combination of retinoid treatment and adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of the modified rPB-driven HSV-tk gene resulted in a significant growth suppression of the androgen-independent prostate cancer cells in the presence of the prodrug ganciclovir. This study suggests that tailoring of the hormone-responsive elements may offer a new therapeutic opportunity against the hormone-refractory stage of prostate cancer.
Mol Ther 2003 Mar
PMID:Development of a prostate-specific promoter for gene therapy against androgen-independent prostate cancer. 1266 32

Androgens and mesenchymal factors are essential extracellular signals for the development as well as the functional activity of the prostate epithelium. Little is known of the intraepithelial determinants that are involved in prostatic differentiation. Here we found that hepatocyte nuclear factor-3 alpha (HNF-3 alpha), an endoderm developmental factor, is essential for androgen receptor (AR)-mediated prostatic gene activation. Two HNF-3 cis-regulatory elements were identified in the rat probasin (PB) gene promoter, each immediately adjacent to an androgen response element. Remarkably, similar organization of HNF-3 and AR binding sites was observed in the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) gene core enhancer, suggesting a common functional mechanism. Mutations that disrupt these HNF-3 motifs significantly abolished the maximal androgen induction of PB and PSA activities. Overexpressing a mutant HNF-3 alpha deleted in the C-terminal region inhibited the androgen-induced promoter activity in LNCaP cells where endogenous HNF-3 alpha is expressed. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed in vivo that the occupancy of HNF-3 alpha on PSA enhancer can occur in an androgen-depleted condition, and before the recruitment of ligand-bound AR. A physical interaction of HNF-3 alpha and AR was detected through immunoprecipitation and confirmed by glutathione-S-transferase pull-down. This interaction is directly mediated through the DNA-binding domain/hinge region of AR and the forkhead domain of HNF-3 alpha. In addition, strong HNF-3 alpha expression, but not HNF-3 beta or HNF-3 gamma, is detected in both human and mouse prostatic epithelial cells where markers (PSA and PB) of differentiation are expressed. Taken together, these data support a model in which regulatory cues from the cell lineage and the extracellular environment coordinately establish the prostatic differentiated response.
Mol Endocrinol 2003 Aug
PMID:The role of hepatocyte nuclear factor-3 alpha (Forkhead Box A1) and androgen receptor in transcriptional regulation of prostatic genes. 1275 Apr 53

In high-activity rhenium-186 hydroxyethylidene diphosphonate ((186)Re-HEDP) treatment of bone metastatic disease from prostate cancer the dose-limiting factor is haematological toxicity. In this study, we examined the correlation of the injected activity and the whole-body absorbed dose with treatment toxicity and response. Since the best response is likely to be related to the maximum possible injected activity limited by the whole-body absorbed dose, the relationship between pre-therapy biochemical and physiological parameters and the whole-body absorbed dose was studied to derive an algorithm to predict the whole-body absorbed dose prior to injection of the radionuclide. The whole-body retention of radioactivity was measured at several time points after injection in a cohort of patients receiving activities ranging between 2,468 MBq and 5,497 MBq. The whole-body absorbed dose was calculated by fitting a sequential series of exponential phases to the whole-body time-activity data and by integrating this fit over time to obtain the whole-body cumulated activity. This was then converted to absorbed dose using the Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) committee methodology. Treatment toxicity was estimated by the relative decrease in white cell (WC) and platelet (Plt) counts after the injection of the radionuclide, and by their absolute nadir values. The criterion for a treatment response was a 50% or greater decrease in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value lasting for 4 weeks. Alkaline phosphatase (AlkPh), chromium-51 ethylene diamine tetra-acetate ((51)Cr-EDTA) clearance rate and weight were measured before injection of the radionuclide. The whole-body absorbed dose showed a significant correlation with WC and Plt toxicity ( P=0.005 and 0.003 for the relative decrease and P=0.006 and 0.003 for the nadir values of WC and Plt counts respectively) in a multivariate analysis which included injected activity, whole-body absorbed dose, pre-treatment WC and Plt baseline counts, PSA and AlkPh values, and the pre-treatment Soloway score. The injected activity did not show any correlation with WC or Plt toxicity, but it did correlate with PSA response ( P=0.005). These results suggest that the administration of higher activities would be likely to generate a better response, but that the quantity of activity that can be administered is limited by the whole-body absorbed dose. We have derived and evaluated a model that estimates the whole-body absorbed dose on an individual patient basis prior to injection. This model uses the level of injected activity and pre-injection measurements of AlkPh, weight and (51)Cr-EDTA clearance. It gave good estimates of the whole-body absorbed dose, with an average difference between predicted and measured values of 15%. Furthermore, the whole-body absorbed dose predicted using this algorithm correlated with treatment toxicity. It could therefore be used to administer levels of activity on a patient-specific basis, which would help in the optimisation of targeted radionuclide therapy. We believe that algorithms of this kind, which use pre-injection biochemical and physiological measurements, could assist in the design of escalation trials based on a toxicity-limiting whole-body absorbed dose, rather than using the more conventional activity escalation approach.
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2003 Aug
PMID:A model-based method for the prediction of whole-body absorbed dose and bone marrow toxicity for 186Re-HEDP treatment of skeletal metastases from prostate cancer. 1276 96

Androgen independent PC-3 cells lack androgen receptor (AR) expression and do not produce kallikrein 2 (hK2) or 3 (prostate-specific antigen, PSA). In this paper, we examined the ability of androgens to stimulate PSA and hK2 production in AR transfected PC-3 cells (PC-3(AR)) and compared this to LNCaP cells. PSA and hK2 were measured in the culture medium and cell lysates using an ELISA-based immunofluorometric assay. Only androgens were able to induce PSA and hK2 secretion in PC-3(AR) cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner depending on the level of AR present. The level of androgen-induced PSA and hK2 secretion in PC-3(AR) cells was approximately 1.5 and 0.9% that induced in LNCaP cells, respectively. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), which has been shown to activate AR in the absence of ligand, did not activate PSA secretion in the absence of androgen, but further increased the dihydrotestosterone-induced PSA secretion in PC-3(AR) cells. The lack of PSA and hK2 production in parental PC-3 cells is thus a result of their lack of AR expression. PSA and/or hK2 production in PC-3(AR) cells can thus serve as an endogenous reporter system to investigate AR action or to screen putative endocrine disrupters.
J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2003 Apr
PMID:Secretion of endogenous kallikreins 2 and 3 by androgen receptor-transfected PC-3 prostate cancer cells. 1276 74

Human semen coagulum predominantly consists of high molecular mass complexes of the seminal vesicle secreted semenogelin I (SgI) and semenogelin II (SgII). Here we describe a previously unknown variant of the SgI gene that is present at an allele frequency of approximately 3% in the Swedish population. It gives rise to a protein with a molecular mass of 43 kDa, SgI(43), which compared with the 50 kDa variant, SgI(50), is lacking a tandem repeat of 60 amino acid residues that was probably deleted by homologous recombination. In spite of the size difference, SgI(43) has many properties in common with SgI(50), such as a very high iso-electric point and susceptibility to proteolytic degradation by prostate-specific antigen. Heterozygous carriers of the SgI(43) allele neither show impaired fertility nor do they significantly differ from individuals homozygous for SgI(50) with respect to sperm parameters such as semen volume, sperm count and fraction of motile spermatozoa.
Mol Hum Reprod 2003 Jun
PMID:A frequent allele codes for a truncated variant of semenogelin I, the major protein component of human semen coagulum. 1277 Dec 35

To investigate whether the tumor suppressor gene PTEN affects the activity of the androgen receptor (AR), we monitored the expression of the apoptotic gene HA-Bax (inserted in an adenovirus where it is driven by the AR-responsive promoter ARR(2)PB) in the presence or absence of dihydrotestosterone, in PTEN (+) or (-) prostate cancer cell lines, infected with an adenovirus containing wild-type PTEN (Av-CMV-PTEN) or a control LacZ-expressing construct. Our results showed that AR transcriptional activity was antagonized by PTEN expression. This antagonism was not cell line dependent, as it was observed in both LNCaP and LAPC-4 cells, or promoter dependent, as it was observed for a reporter gene (HA-Bax) driven by an exogenous androgen-responsive promoter (the ARR(2)PB promoter), and for a native gene (prostate-specific antigen; PSA) driven by an endogenous AR-responsive promoter. Additional experiments performed with viruses containing constitutively active (Adeno-myrAkt) or dominant negative (Adeno-dnAkt) forms of Akt demonstrated that Akt, a protein kinase whose activation is known to be inhibited by PTEN, mediated the observed antagonism between PTEN and AR transcriptional activity. Recently, two putative Akt phosphorylation sites have been identified in the AR sequence. Site-directed mutagenesis was utilized to convert these two serine into alanine residues. The resulting construct, named CMV-AR S213A&S791A was transfected in AR (-) and PTEN (-) PC-3 cells in the presence or absence of Av-CMV-PTEN and of two reporter plasmids (GRE(2)E1b-Luc and PSA P/E-luc) containing the luciferase gene driven by well-characterized androgen responsive promoters. These experiments demonstrated that, similarly to the wild-type molecule, AR S213A&S791A was transcriptionally inhibited by PTEN, suggesting that Akt does not have an effect on AR transcription by direct phosphorylation, but probably by affecting the availability of a downstream molecule whose main mechanism of action is that of modulating AR transcription. The data presented here suggest that loss of PTEN function may facilitate activation of AR signaling and progression to androgen independence in prostate cancer.
J Mol Endocrinol 2003 Aug
PMID:The PTEN tumor suppressor is a negative modulator of androgen receptor transcriptional activity. 1291 34


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>