Small-interfering RNA–induced androgen receptor silencing leads to apoptotic cell death in prostate cancer
Open Access
- 1 April 2005
- journal article
- Published by American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
- Vol. 4 (4), 505-515
- https://doi.org/10.1158/1535-7163.mct-04-0313
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States and, thus far, there has been no effective therapy for the treatment of hormone-refractory disease. Recently, the androgen receptor (AR) has been shown to play a critical role in the development and progression of the disease. In this report, we showed that knocking down the AR protein level by a small interfering RNA (siRNA) approach resulted in a significant apoptotic cell death as evidenced by an increased annexin V binding, reduced mitochondrial potential, caspase-3/6 activation, and DFF45 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. The apoptotic response was specifically observed in those siRNA-transfected cells that harbor a native AR gene. No cell death was found in the AR-null prostate cancer cell PC-3 or its subline that has been reconstituted with an exogenous AR gene, as well as two breast cancer cell lines that are AR positive. Moreover, in parallel with the siRNA-induced AR silencing, the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-xL was significantly reduced, which might account for the apoptotic cell death because ectopic enforced expression of Bcl-xL protein partially inhibited apoptosis after AR silencing. Taken together, our data showed that knocking down the AR protein level in prostate cancer cells leads to apoptosis by disrupting the Bcl-xL–mediated survival signal downstream of AR-dependent survival pathway.Keywords
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