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Publication — IRIC

Chronic hypoxia favours adoption to a castration-resistant cell state in prostate cancer.

Predicting and treating recurrence in intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients remains a challenge despite having identified genomic instability [1] and hypoxia [2, 3] as risk factors. This underlies challenges in assigning the functional impact of these risk factors to mechanisms promoting prostate cancer progression. Here we show chronic hypoxia (CH), as observed in prostate tumours [4], leads to the adoption of an androgen-independent state in prostate cancer cells. Specifically, CH results in prostate cancer cells adopting transcriptional and metabolic alterations typical of castration-resistant prostate cancer cells. These changes include the increased expression of transmembrane transporters for the methionine cycle and related pathways leading to increased abundance of metabolites and expression of enzymes related to glycolysis. Targeting of the Glucose Transporter 1 (GLUT1) identified a dependency on glycolysis in androgen-independent cells. Overall, we identified a therapeutically targetable weakness in chronic hypoxia and androgen-independent prostate cancer. These findings may offer additional strategies for treatment development against hypoxic prostate cancer.

Publication date
April 5, 2023
Principal Investigators
Cameron S, Deblois G, Hawley JR, Qamra A, Zhou S, Tonekaboni SAM, Murison A, Van Vliet R, Liu J, Locasale JW, Lupien M
PubMed reference
Oncogene 2023
PubMed ID
37020039
Affiliation
Princess Margaret Cancer Research Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada.