Project description:Metastatic prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are involved in tumor progression and metastasis, including in prostate cancer. There is an obvious and urgent need for effective cancer stem cells specific therapies in metastatic prostate cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important class of pervasive genes that are involved in a variety of biological functions, especially in cancer. The goal of this study was to identify miRNAs involved in prostate cancer metastasis and cancer stem cells. Several published reports have demonstrated that non-adherent spheres culture is increasingly used as an effective method to enrich and identify stem cells or putative CSCs.In our previous study, we enriched prostate cancer stem cells from PC-3 sphere cells in serum-free suspension culture and characterized their CSCs properties.Thus, we used spheres as a prostate cancer stem cells model to elucidate its metastatic mechanisms. We examined the miRNA expression profiles of PC-3 sphere cells of prostate cancer compared with PC-3 adherent cells by miRNA microarray.
Project description:Self-renewing tumor initiating cells that are capable of differentiation and responsible for tumor growth have been isolated from cancers and cell lines. If such minor populations are associated with tumor progression, understanding molecular pathways that are required for viability and maintenance of these populations will allow to target these pathways to eradicate tumors that are resistant to existing therapies. In this study we enriched for prostate cancer progenitors (Pr. CPM-CM-"M-BM-^@M-BM-^Ys) expressing cell surface markers CD44/CD133/alpha 2 beta 1 integrin in non-adherent serum-free growth conditions maintained as spheres. Cells grown in these conditions have increased in vivo clonogenic and in vivo tumorigenic potential. microarray analysis of cells grown in sphere conditions compared with long term monolayer culture conditions revealed preferential activation of PI3K/AKT pathway in prostate cancer progenitors. PI3K p110 alpha and beta protein levels were high in sphere condition cultured cells, and PTEN knockdown lead to an increase in Pr.CPM-CM-"M-BM-^@M-BM-^Ys, and to increased clonogenic and tumorigenic potential. Inhibition of Akt1 phosphorylation target FoxO3a lead to inhibition of tumorigenic capacity in vivo for prostate cancer cells. Inhibition of PI3K activity by PI3K inhibitor NVP-BEZ235 lead to a selective inhibition of Pr.CPM-CM-"M-BM-^@M-BM-^Ys, nuclear localization of FoxO3a and increase in GADD45a in prostate cancer cells. Taken together our data strongly suggest that PTEN and PI3K/Akt pathways are critical for prostate cancer stem-like cell maintenance and targeting the PI3K signaling by selective inhibitors may give an incredible advancement in prostate cancer treatment. Experiment Overall Design: sphere and monolayer cultures from two different prostate cancer cell lines
Project description:Transcriptional profile of PCSC spheres in SCM-1% KO (stem-like cells) vs adherent cultures in PCSC-Celprogen medium (differentiated-like cells) Two-condition experiment: Sphere vs. Parental/adherent cells. Biological replicates: 2 sphere replicates , 2 adherent replicates.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of cancer stem cells (sphere-cultured cells) comparing non-cancer stem cells (adherent-cultured cells). Goal was to identity cancer stem cell-specific genes.
Project description:Self-renewing tumor initiating cells that are capable of differentiation and responsible for tumor growth have been isolated from cancers and cell lines. If such minor populations are associated with tumor progression, understanding molecular pathways that are required for viability and maintenance of these populations will allow to target these pathways to eradicate tumors that are resistant to existing therapies. In this study we enriched for prostate cancer progenitors (Pr. CP’s) expressing cell surface markers CD44/CD133/alpha 2 beta 1 integrin in non-adherent serum-free growth conditions maintained as spheres. Cells grown in these conditions have increased in vivo clonogenic and in vivo tumorigenic potential. microarray analysis of cells grown in sphere conditions compared with long term monolayer culture conditions revealed preferential activation of PI3K/AKT pathway in prostate cancer progenitors. PI3K p110 alpha and beta protein levels were high in sphere condition cultured cells, and PTEN knockdown lead to an increase in Pr.CP’s, and to increased clonogenic and tumorigenic potential. Inhibition of Akt1 phosphorylation target FoxO3a lead to inhibition of tumorigenic capacity in vivo for prostate cancer cells. Inhibition of PI3K activity by PI3K inhibitor NVP-BEZ235 lead to a selective inhibition of Pr.CP’s, nuclear localization of FoxO3a and increase in GADD45a in prostate cancer cells. Taken together our data strongly suggest that PTEN and PI3K/Akt pathways are critical for prostate cancer stem-like cell maintenance and targeting the PI3K signaling by selective inhibitors may give an incredible advancement in prostate cancer treatment. Keywords: multiple tissues