Prostate cancer treatment possible with androgen receptor suppressing protein

A protein known to regular expression of the androgen receptors can prove to be the focal point for staging and treating prostate cancer fueled by testosterone, as per a finding reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.

The finding was reported by researchers from the College of Georgia.

An increase in the number of androgen receptors can be hailed to responsible for prostate cancer progression in men with advanced disease, according to Dr. Yehia Daaka, Distinguished Chair in Oncologic Pathology in the MCG School of Medicine and co-author of the study.

From Sciencedaily.com:

With increased numbers of androgen receptors, prostate cancer can make use of the limited testosterone available after a diseased prostate gland is removed or after testosterone production is blocked by drug therapy. In fact, the increased number of androgen receptors may mutate so they can start feeding off other steroids or even growth factors, Dr. Daaka says.

These wily skills help explain why cancer returns despite initially promising treatment results.

“It is clear that signaling by the androgen receptor is paramount for not only the initiation but also the progression of the disease, including escape to a hormone-refractory disease,” he says. Moves androgen receptors make to support cancer growth make it “unbeatable at this point,” for some patients.

However increased levels of βarrestin2 appear to halt the potentially deadly increase in androgen receptor expression, the MCG research team has found.

Collaborators on this study included Dr. Vijayabaskar Lakshmikanthan, postdoctoral fellow; Dr. Lin Zou, former postdoctoral fellow;  Jae Kim, graduate student; Dr. Nidia C. Messias, assistant professor; and Dr. Zhongzhen Nie, assistant professor; from the MCG Department of Pathology; and Drs. Allison Michal, and Jeffrey L. Benovic from Thomas Jefferson University.

Tags: prostate cancer, Steroids, testosterone, βarrestin2

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