Androgen receptor phosphorylation in prostate cancer

Patek, Samantha Clare (2018) Androgen receptor phosphorylation in prostate cancer. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the UK. Although incidence is increasing, prostate cancer mortality is decreasing, mainly owing to the over diagnosis of disease that would not have become clinically apparent during the patient’s lifetime. The gold-standard for prostate cancer diagnosis is transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy of the prostate. Whilst prostate biopsy can inform on diagnosis, it’s prognostic ultiltiy is poor. Currently clinicians lack pathological biomarkers to differentiate between patients with prostate cancer who have indolent disease that can be safely managed with surveillance strategies, and those who will go onto develop aggressive disease which requires early radical curative treatment.

Phosphorylation of the androgen receptor has been extensively investigated in relation to prostate cancer development and progression. Androgen receptor phosphorylation has been shown to regulate cellular localisation, transcriptional activity, cell growth and sensitivity to androgens in prostate cancer. However, only a small number of studies have investigated the prognostic significance of androgen receptor phosphorylation, and only consider a limited number of serine residues in clinical specimens.

The research presented in this thesis sought to investigate the prognostic and predictive significance of AR phosphorylation at serine 578 in hormone-naïve prostate cancer. It was hypothesised that pARS578 would be associated with poor outcomes in prostate cancer and may be utilised as a prognostic marker at diagnosis in prostate cancer and predict response to drug treatment with a PKC inhibitor. It was also hypothesised that PKC, the putative kinase for phosphorylation at serine 578, would be associated with poor outcomes and may offer a potential therapeutic target in prostate cancer.

In the current study, the phosphorylation site of primary interest was serine 578. Scansite 2.0, an online kinase search tool, predicted that PKC is the putative kinase mediating phosphorylation at serine 578 on the androgen receptor. Phosphorylation of the androgen receptor at serine 578 has been linked with increased AR transcriptional activity, cell growth, nuclear cytoplasmic shuttling, modulation of other AR phosphorylation sites and DNA-repair mechanisms. The prognostic significance of androgen receptor phosphorylation at serine 81 was also investigated in this study. Serine 81 is phosphorylated in response to DHT via an alternative pathway to that of serine 578. Serine 81 phosphorylation is associated with increased androgen receptor transcriptional activity and increased cell growth in prostate cancer. It was therefore hypothesised that androgen receptor phosphorylation at serine 578 and serine 81 would be associated with poor outcome measures in prostate cancer.

Immunohistochemical analysis was performed in a cohort of 105 hormone-naïve prostate cancer patients undergoing active surveillance, representing a cohort of patients with low-risk disease, as defined by current clinical markers such as PSA and Gleason score at diagnosis. Nuclear PKC expression was significantly associated with pARS578 expression in the clinical specimens, supporting the prediction of Scnasite 2.0 that PKC is the kinase responsible for phosphorylation of the AR at this site. High cytoplasmic expression of pARS81 was associated with decreased time to intervention (HR 2.76 (95% CI 1.1-7.3), p=0.032). There was no association between pARS578 and time to intervention in this cohort. Analysis of combined expression of both phosphorylation sites revealed an association between high dual expression of cytoplasmic pARS81 and cytoplasmic pARS578 and decreased time to treatment intervention (HR 2.35 (95% CI 1.2-4.6), p=0.031). These results suggest a synergistic prognostic effect when these two phosphorylation sites are combined and identifies a sub-population of low-risk prostate cancer patients who are at increased risk of disease progression.

A second study was conducted to investigate if these results could be replicated in a cohort of prostate cancer patients with all stages of disease at diagnosis. Immunohistochemical analysis in 90 hormone-naïve prostate cancer patients found that high expression of nuclear pARS81 (HR 2.1 (95% CI 1.1 – 4.2), p=0.030), nuclear pARS578 (HR 2.24 (95% CI 1.0-4.9), p=0.036) and cytoplasmic pARS578 (HR 4.54 (95% CI 2.0-10.4), p=<0.001) was associated with decreased disease survival. Furthermore, high expression of cytoplasmic pARS578 was associated with decreased time to biochemical relapse (HR 2.1 (95% CI 1.0-4.2), p=0.034) and decreased disease-specific survival following biochemical relapse (HR 3.2 (95% CI 1.0-9.9), p=0.034). Dual expression of nuclear, cytoplasmic and total pARS81 and pARS578 were all associated with decreased-disease specific survival, suggesting that there is a sub-population of prostate cancer patients who may benefit from dual targeted therapy with androgen deprivation therapy and PKC inhibitors.

A validation cohort of 243 hormone-naïve prostate cancer patients with all stages of disease was utilised to verify the results of the second cohort. Unfortunately, due to technical issues and time constraints, IHC could not be completed for the phosphorylation sites of interest in all patients. Despite this, high expression of cytoplasmic pARS578 was significantly associated with decreased time to biochemical relapse (HR 2.9 (95% CI 1.0-8.2), p=0.037) and trended towards an association with decreased overall survival (p=0.076). Interestingly, dual expression of high cytoplasmic pARS81 and cytoplasmic pARS578 was associated with decreased overall survival (HR 2.1 (95% CI 1.3-3.3) p=0.001) despite neither phosphorylation site independently predicting decreased overall survival.

Lastly, a study to develop a technique for isolation, propagation and characterisation of primary prostate cancer cells from TRUS biopsy specimens was undertaken. Two primary prostate cell cultures were developed which were confirmed to have a malignant luminal epithelial cell phenotype with a functional AR using flow cytometry, RT-PCR and immunofluorescence. This technique is of high translational relevance, as it provides a model with potential to identify biomarkers to predict individual patient’s response to prostate cancer therapies.

Overall these results suggest that androgen receptor phosphorylated at serine 81 and serine 578 are associated with poor outcomes in prostate cancer and are potential targets for new drug therapies. Additional studies are required to validate these results in a larger multi-centre cohort of prostate cancer patients before either of these phosphorylation sites can be utilised as a biomarker in clinical practice.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Prostate cancer, androgen receptor, phosphorylation.
• Subjects: R Medicine > RB Pathology; R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0254 Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology (including Cancer); R Medicine > RD Surgery
• Colleges/Schools: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing
• Supervisor's Name: Edwards, Dr. Joanne and Horgan, Professor Paul
• Date of Award: 2018
• Depositing User: Dr Samantha Clare Patek
• Unique ID: glathesis:2018-38914
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 15 Nov 2018 14:25
• Last Modified: 29 Jan 2019 08:44
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/38914

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