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Owens JL, Beketova E, Liu S, Shen Q, Pawar JS, Asberry AM, Yang J, Deng X, Elzey BD, Ratliff TL, Cheng L, Choo CR, Citrin DE, Polascik TJ, Wang B, Huang J, Li C, Wan J, Hu CD. Targeting protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) suppresses radiation-induced neuroendocrine differentiation and sensitizes prostate cancer cells to radiation. Mol Cancer Ther 2022; 21:448-459. [PMID: 35027481 DOI: 10.1158/1535-7163.mct-21-0103] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Revised: 10/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer death among American men. Radiation therapy (RT) is a potentially curative treatment for localized prostate cancer, and failure to control localized disease contributes to the majority of prostate cancer deaths. Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) in prostate cancer, a process by which prostate adenocarcinoma cells transdifferentiate into neuroendocrine-like (NE-like) cells, is an emerging mechanism of resistance to cancer therapies and contributes to disease progression. NED also occurs in response to treatment to promote the development of treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), a highly-aggressive and terminal stage disease. We previously demonstrated that by mimicking clinical RT protocol, fractionated ionizing radiation (FIR) induces prostate cancer cells to undergo NED in vitro and in vivo. Here, we performed transcriptomic analysis and confirmed that FIR-induced NE-like cells share some features of clinical NEPC, suggesting that FIR-induced NED represents a clinically-relevant model. Further, we demonstrated that protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5), a master epigenetic regulator of the DNA damage response and a putative oncogene in prostate cancer, along with its cofactors pICln and MEP50, mediate FIR-induced NED. Knockdown of PRMT5, pICln, or MEP50 during FIR-inhibited NED sensitized prostate cancer cells to radiation. Significantly, PRMT5 knockdown in prostate cancer xenograft tumors in mice during FIR prevented NED, enhanced tumor killing, significantly reduced and delayed tumor recurrence, and prolonged overall survival. Collectively, our results demonstrate that PRMT5 promotes FIR-induced NED and suggests that targeting PRMT5 may be a novel and effective radiosensitization approach for prostate cancer RT.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jake L Owens
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Elena Beketova
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Sheng Liu
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine
| | - Qi Shen
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Jogendra Singh Pawar
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Andrew M Asberry
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Jie Yang
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Xuehong Deng
- Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacolog, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Bennett D Elzey
- Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Timothy L Ratliff
- Comparative Pathobiology and the Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University West Lafayette
| | - Liang Cheng
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
| | | | | | | | - Bangchen Wang
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine
| | - Jiaoti Huang
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine
| | | | - Jun Wan
- Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine
| | - Chang-Deng Hu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University West Lafayette
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Beketova E, Fang S, Owens JL, Liu S, Chen X, Zhang Q, Asberry AM, Deng X, Malola J, Huang J, Li C, Pili R, Elzey BD, Ratliff TL, Wan J, Hu CD. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 Promotes pICln-Dependent Androgen Receptor Transcription in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res 2020; 80:4904-4917. [PMID: 32999000 PMCID: PMC7669631 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-20-1228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Revised: 07/30/2020] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The majority of advanced prostate cancer therapies aim to inhibit androgen receptor (AR) signaling. However, AR reactivation inevitably drives disease progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Here we demonstrate that protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) functions as an epigenetic activator of AR transcription in CRPC, requiring cooperation with a methylosome subunit pICln. In vitro and in xenograft tumors in mice, targeting PRMT5 or pICln suppressed growth of CRPC cells. Full-length AR and AR-V7 transcription activation required both PRMT5 and pICln but not MEP50. This activation of transcription was accompanied by PRMT5-mediated symmetric dimethylation of H4R3 at the proximal AR promoter. Further, knockdown of PRMT5 abolished the binding of pICln (but not vice versa) to the AR proximal promoter region, suggesting that PRMT5 recruits pICln to the AR promoter to activate AR transcription. Differential gene expression analysis in 22Rv1 cells confirmed that PRMT5 and pICln both regulate the androgen signaling pathway. In addition, PRMT5 and pICln protein expression positively correlated with AR and AR-V7 protein expression in CRPC tissues and their expression was highly correlated at the mRNA level across multiple publicly available CRPC datasets. Our results suggest that targeting PRMT5 or pICln may be explored as a novel therapy for CRPC treatment by suppressing expression of AR and AR splice variants to circumvent AR reactivation. SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides evidence that targeting PRMT5 can eliminate expression of AR and can be explored as a novel therapeutic approach to treat metastatic hormone-naïve and castration-resistant prostate cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Beketova
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.,Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Shuyi Fang
- Department of BioHealth Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana
| | - Jake L Owens
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Sheng Liu
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.,The Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana
| | - Xufeng Chen
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Caroline
| | - Qingfu Zhang
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Caroline
| | - Andrew M Asberry
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.,Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Xuehong Deng
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Jonathan Malola
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Jiaoti Huang
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Caroline
| | - Chenglong Li
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Florida College of Pharmacy, Gainesville, Florida
| | - Roberto Pili
- Department of Medical Oncology, Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
| | - Bennett D Elzey
- Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.,Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Timothy L Ratliff
- Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.,Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
| | - Jun Wan
- Department of BioHealth Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana. .,Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.,The Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana.,The Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana
| | - Chang-Deng Hu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. .,Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
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Owens JL, Beketova E, Liu S, Tinsley SL, Asberry AM, Deng X, Huang J, Li C, Wan J, Hu CD. PRMT5 Cooperates with pICln to Function as a Master Epigenetic Activator of DNA Double-Strand Break Repair Genes. iScience 2019; 23:100750. [PMID: 31884170 PMCID: PMC6941881 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.100750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2019] [Revised: 11/06/2019] [Accepted: 11/22/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair is critical for cell survival and genome integrity. Upon recognition of DSBs, repair proteins are transiently upregulated to facilitate repair through homologous recombination (HR) or non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). We present evidence that PRMT5 cooperates with pICln to function as a master epigenetic activator of DNA damage response (DDR) genes involved in HR, NHEJ, and G2 arrest (including RAD51, BRCA1, and BRCA2) to upregulate gene expression upon DNA damage. Contrary to the predominant role of PRMT5 as an epigenetic repressor, our results demonstrate that PRMT5 and pICln can activate gene expression, potentially independent of PRMT5's obligate cofactor MEP50. Targeting PRMT5 or pICln hinders repair of DSBs in multiple cancer cell lines, and both PRMT5 and pICln expression positively correlates with DDR genes across 32 clinical cancer datasets. Thus, targeting PRMT5 or pICln may be explored in combination with radiation or chemotherapy for cancer treatment. PRMT5 activates transcription of DSB repair genes upon DNA damage pICln cooperates with PRMT5 to activate transcription of DSB repair genes Targeting PRMT5 is effective to sensitize multiple cancer types to radiation PRMT5 expression positively correlates with DSB repair genes in cancer tissues
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Affiliation(s)
- Jake L Owens
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Elena Beketova
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Sheng Liu
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
| | - Samantha L Tinsley
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Andrew M Asberry
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Xuehong Deng
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| | - Jiaoti Huang
- Department of Pathology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Chenglong Li
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Florida College of Pharmacy, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA
| | - Jun Wan
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; The Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA; Department of BioHealth Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
| | - Chang-Deng Hu
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
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