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TNIK, a novel androgen receptor-repressed gene, is a potential biomarker for neuroendocrine prostate cancer

University of British Columbia

Traf2- and Nck-interacting kinase (TNIK) is a serine/threonine kinase upregulated and amplified in pancreatic and gastric cancer respectively. TNIK has also been identified as a potential therapeutic target of colorectal cancer. However, the role of TNIK in prostate cancer (PCa) has not been investigated. Interrogating public human PCa patient data, we found that TNIK expression is associated with an aggressive form of PCa termed neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). Treatment-induced NEPC can arise as a consequence of strong selective pressure from androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibition. Clinically, TNIK expression is positively correlated with neuroendocrine (NE) markers and inversely correlated with androgen regulated genes. In agreement, our in vitro studies reveal that TNIK expression is increased under AR pathway inhibition. We found that TNIK is transcriptionally repressed by androgen via direct binding of the AR at the TNIK locus. Through gain of function studies, we demonstrated that TNIK is not required for NE differentiation. Likewise, loss of function studies using siRNA or small molecule inhibitors targeting TNIK did not have significant effect on the growth of Enzalutamide-resistant cells with NE phenotype in vitro. Overall, our results indicate that TNIK may serve as a possible biomarker for NEPC.

Text

2017-12-22

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64148

Experimental Medicine

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/