Abstract
Abstract Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in North America. The androgen receptor (AR) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of transcription factors and is heavily implicated in PCa progression. First-line therapies frequently target the AR axis and are initially met with favourable response but restored and aberrant AR signaling fuel disease progression to stages for which treatment is palliative. Transcriptional targets of the AR include genes involved in cell growth and cell fate but are not completely described. The semaphorin family of signaling proteins is a large grouping of cell-surface or secreted signaling proteins that function in neurogenesis and development. The roles of semaphorins in cancer are becoming increasingly evident however mechanistic details surrounding their involvement in cancer are poorly defined. One member of the class 3 semaphorins, SEMA3C, has been shown to confer invasive phenotypes in prostate cancer cells. Using the AR-positive LNCaP cell line we show that SEMA3C is an androgen-responsive gene. Additionally, using RSAT DNA analysis software we identify an androgen response element (ARE) in intron 2 of SEMA3C and show that AR is recruited to this genomic region in an androgen-dependent manner in chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Furthermore, the isolated ARE binds to the AR-DNA binding domain in gel shift assays and can be transactivated by AR in reporter gene assays. Finally we show that the pioneering factor, GATA2, is necessary for AR-mediated expression of SEMA3C. Collectively, our work identifies SEMA3C as a direct transcriptional target of AR in support of our hypothesis that dysregulated AR signaling drives inadvertent upregulation of SEMA3C and PCa disease progression. Deregulated AR signaling underpins prostate cancer progression and underscores the need to elucidate transcriptional targets of AR. Identification of SEMA3C as a novel target of AR provides the rationale for targeted therapies directed against SEMA3C. Citation Format: Kevin J. Tam, Kush Dalal, Michael Hsing, Chi Wing Cheng, Yan Ting Chiang, Aishwariya Sharma, James W. Peacock, Artem Cherkasov, Yuzhuo Wang, Martin E. Gleave, Paul S. Rennie, Christopher J. Ong. Semaphorin 3C is an androgen receptor-regulated gene. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1834.
Published Version
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