Project description:To investigate genetic and molecular differences that may exist between prostate cancers of African American and European American origin. Gene expression profile analysis was performed comparing RNA seq data of African American prostate cancer cell lines (inhouse) and European American prostate cancer cell lines (public repository)
Project description:The incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer are significantly higher in African-American men when compared to European-American men. We tested the hypothesis that differences in tumor biology contribute to this survival health disparity. Using microarray technology, we obtained gene expression profiles of primary prostate tumors resected from 33 African-American and 36 European-American patients. These tumors were matched on clinical parameters. We also evaluated 18 non-tumor prostate tissues from 7 African-American and 11 European-American patients. The resulting datasets were analyzed for expression differences on the gene and pathway level comparing African-American with European-American patients. Our analysis revealed a significant number of genes, e.g., 162 transcripts at a false-discovery rate less than 5%, to be differently expressed between African-American and European-American patients. Using a disease association analysis, we identified a common relationship of these transcripts with autoimmunity and inflammation. These findings were corroborated on the pathway level with numerous differently expressed genes clustering in immune response, stress response, cytokine signaling, and chemotaxis pathways. Furthermore, a two-gene tumor signature was identified that accurately differentiated between African-American and European-American patients. This finding was confirmed in a blinded analysis of a second sample set. In conclusion, the gene expression profiles of prostate tumors indicate prominent differences in tumor immunobiology between African-American and European-American men. The profiles portray the existence of a distinct tumor microenvironment in these two patient groups. Keywords: Microdissected tissue analysis
Project description:Vitamin D3 is a steroid hormone that has been shown to prevent tumor growth in prostate cells. Not having enough vitamin D3 in the blood has been linked to advanced prostate cancer and mortality, especially in African American men. We wanted to understand how vitamin D affected pathways that keep prostate cells from becoming cancerous, which could lead to new therapeutic targets and treatments, especially for African American men who tend to be more prone to being vitamin D deficient compared to European men. Here, we studied a non-cancerous African American prostate cell line treated with the active form of vitamin D with a concentration similar to what is found in the body for 24 h. Using RNA whole-transcriptome sequencing, we compared these treated cells with untreated cells to assess genes and pathways significantly changed due to treatment. We found that vitamin D affected the activity of 1600 genes, mainly suppressing pathways linked to prostate cell movement, growth, and viability. Only two genes, ANLN and ECT2, were strongly correlated with prostate cancer prognosis. Downregulation of ANLN and ECT2 was also shown to repress signaling pathways involved in prostate cell movement, growth, malignant transformation, and viability. In further validation utilizing prostate cancer cohorts comprised of African American and European American men, patients tended to have better sur-vival rates when these genes were less active. Our results suggest that vitamin D decreases the activity of these genes and could be important for preventing prostate cancer, especially for African American men. This could lead to the development of new treatments targeting specific genes and pathways involved in prostate cancer growth.