Publications by Year: 2002

Prostate cancer is dependent on androgen stimulation mediated by the androgen receptor (AR), a member of the steroid hormone receptor family of ligand-dependent nuclear receptors. Most patients respond to standard androgen ablation therapies, but virtually all patients eventually relapse with disease that has been termed hormone-refractory or androgen-independent disease. Efforts to use AR antagonists, such as flutamide or bicalutamide, to enhance responses to primary androgen ablation therapy or to treat androgen-independent prostate cancer have been disappointing, which has diminished enthusiasm for more aggressive or alternative methods to block AR function. However, many lines of evidence indicate that AR function contributes to tumor cell survival after androgen ablation and to growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer. This article outlines a number of mechanisms that may contribute to AR activity in androgen-independent prostate cancer, including AR amplification, AR mutation, altered expression of AR coactivator and corepressor proteins, and activation of other pathways that can enhance AR function. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for AR function in androgen-independent prostate cancer should allow the more rational development of antagonists that can enhance the efficacy of androgen ablation therapies.

Nuclear receptor corepressor (NCoR) mediates transcriptional repression by unliganded nuclear receptors and certain steroid hormone receptors (SHRs) bound to nonphysiological antagonists, but has not been found to regulate SHRs bound to their natural ligands. This report demonstrates that NCoR interacts directly with the androgen receptor (AR) and represses dihydrotestosterone-stimulated AR transcriptional activity. The NCoR C terminus, containing the receptor interacting domains, was necessary for repression, which was ablated by mutations in the corepressor nuclear receptor (CoRNR) boxes. In contrast, the NCoR N terminus, containing domains that can recruit histone deacetylases, was not necessary for repression. Binding studies in vitro with a series of glutathione-S-transferase-NCoR and -AR fusion proteins demonstrated a direct interaction that was similarly dependent upon the NCoR corepressor nuclear receptor boxes and AR ligand binding domain and was independent of ligand and helix 12 in the AR ligand binding domain. This NCoR-AR interaction was further demonstrated in mammalian two-hybrid assays and by coimmunoprecipitation of the endogenous proteins from a prostate cancer cell line. Finally, AR transcriptional activity could be enhanced in vivo by sequestration of endogenous NCoR with unliganded thyroid hormone receptor. These results demonstrate that AR, in contrast to other SHRs, is regulated by NCoR and suggest the possibility of developing selective AR modulators that enhance this interaction.

A human protein termed p21-activated kinase 6 (PAK6), based on homology to the PAK family of serine/threonine kinases, was cloned as an AR interacting protein. PAK6 was a 75-kDa protein with a predicted N-terminal Cdc42/Rac interactive binding domain and a C-terminal kinase domain. PAK6 bound strongly to GTP-Cdc42 and weakly to GTP-Rac. In contrast to most PAKs, kinase activity was not stimulated by Cdc42 or Rac, but could be stimulated by AR binding. PAK6 interacted with the intact AR in a mammalian one-hybrid assay and bound in vitro, without ligand, to the hinge region between the AR DNA- and ligand-binding domains. PAK6 also bound to the ERalpha, and binding was enhanced by 4-hydroxytamoxifen. AR and ERalpha transcriptional activities were inhibited by PAK6 in transient transfections with episomal and integrated reporter genes. AR inhibition was not reversed by transfection with an activated Cdc42 mutant, Cdc42V12, which by itself also inhibited AR transactivation. Epitope-tagged PAK6 was primarily cytoplasmic in the absence or presence of AR and hormone. PAK6 transcripts were expressed most highly in brain and testis, with lower levels in multiple tissues including prostate and breast. PAK6 interaction provides a mechanism for cross-talk between steroid hormone receptors and Cdc42-mediated signal transduction pathways and could contribute to the effects of tamoxifen in breast cancer and in other tissues.

Prostate cancers (PCa) that relapse after androgen deprivation therapy invariably express high levels of androgen receptor (AR) and AR-regulated genes. Most do not respond to secondary hormonal therapies, including AR antagonists, and the mechanisms of AR activation in these clinically androgen-independent tumors are unclear. Bicalutamide, the most widely used AR antagonist, is a competitive antagonist shown previously to stabilize AR association with cytosolic heat shock protein complexes. This study found nuclear AR expression in bicalutamide-treated androgen-independent PCa and found that bicalutamide could stimulate AR nuclear translocation. Moreover, specific DNA binding by the bicalutamide-liganded AR was demonstrated in vivo using a VP16-AR fusion protein and was confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation showing binding to the prostate-specific antigen enhancer in LNCaP PCa cells. Nonetheless, bicalutamide could not stimulate interactions between the AR N and C termini or recruitment of steroid receptor coactivator proteins (SRC-1 or -2), although SRC transfection augmented AR activity in the presence of dihydrotestosterone and inhibitory concentrations of bicalutamide. These results demonstrate that bicalutamide stimulates the assembly of a transcriptionally inactive AR on DNA and support altered coactivator (or corepressor) expression as a mechanism of bicalutamide-resistant androgen-independent PCa.