Study finds key molecular switches for treating prostate cancer

The newsletter's author, DrChawnshang Chang, and his colleagues described how enzalutamide inadvertently caused harmful transformations, and they believe they have found a way to stop the conversion, at least in miceThe study, led by Jie Luo, a graduate student in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester, was published in the journal Nature Communicationsimage source: "More and more patients want a few months of enmesamine to extend their lifespan, and our goal is to find ways to make the drug work longer and block dangerous pathways that cause side effects," said Nature Communications ChangProstate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United StatesWhile some early types of Gleeson have lower scores and can be treated with "observation and waiting" methods, other types of cancer have higher levels that require surgery and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)The aim of this treatment is to lower levels of male sex hormones (androgens) in the body, which can cause cancerA particularly aggressive subtype of the disease, known as anti-aggressive prostate cancer, continues to grow after treatmentFor men with this invasive metastatic prostate cancer who no longer respond to chemotherapy, enmolua can extend survival by an average of five monthsIn 2018, the FDA also approved the drug for the treatment of patients with aggressive prostate cancer who have not yet spreadBut enheruamine can cause side effectsOne of the worst effects is neuroendocrine differentiation (NED), an increase in neuroendocrine cells in prostate tumorsA large number of NED cells make tumors resistant to treatmentChang and Luo found that non-coding RNA-p21 was the main cause of induced neuroendocrine differentiation, as IncRNAp-21 could alter the function of the key gene EZH2They also showed that IncRNAp-21 was highly expressive in NED prostate tumorsEarlier, scientists believed that only a small percentage of advanced prostate cancer tumors had experienced neuroendocrine differentiationBut recent studies estimate that 30 to 40 percent of patients have tumors that contain invasive neuroendocrine prostate cancer cells, and that their average survival rate after diagnosis is less than a year, making them more susceptible to worsening conditions Edward Messing, an international authority on urology cancer, said the latest findings could have an impact on men with difficult conditions "Dr Chang's team has identified an important molecular mechanism that affects many of the thousands of people with advanced prostate cancer who will eventually die from prostate cancer," Messing said "Understanding and reversing the 'switch' that leads to neuroendocrine differentiation should prolong the life span of these men and significantly reduce their pain Although there are no clinical trials to block molecular switches, Chang's lab has found a small molecule drug that appears to be effective in mice; References: Jie Luo et al LncRNA-p21 alters s antiandrogen enzalutamide-induced prostate prostateergerenenene via modulating eE2/STAT3 signaling, Nature Communications (2019) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09784-9