1. Academic Validation
  2. Ailanthone targets p23 to overcome MDV3100 resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer

Ailanthone targets p23 to overcome MDV3100 resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer

  • Nat Commun. 2016 Dec 13;7:13122. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13122.
Yundong He 1 Shihong Peng 1 Jinhua Wang 1 Huang Chen 1 Xiaonan Cong 1 Ang Chen 1 Meichun Hu 1 Min Qin 1 Haigang Wu 1 Shuman Gao 1 Liguo Wang 2 Xin Wang 1 Zhengfang Yi 1 Mingyao Liu 1 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 East China Normal University and Shanghai Fengxian District Central Hospital Joint Center for Translational Medicine, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Regulatory Biology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
  • 2 Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA.
  • 3 Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Abstract

Androgen Receptor (AR) antagonist MDV3100 is the first therapeutic approach in treating castration-resistant prostate Cancer (CRPC), but tumours frequently become drug resistant via multiple mechanisms including AR amplification and mutation. Here we identify the small molecule Ailanthone (AIL) as a potent inhibitor of both full-length AR (AR-FL) and constitutively active truncated AR splice variants (AR-Vs). AIL binds to the co-chaperone protein p23 and prevents AR's interaction with HSP90, thus resulting in the disruption of the AR-chaperone complex followed by ubiquitin/proteasome-mediated degradation of AR as well as other p23 clients including Akt and CDK4, and downregulates AR and its target genes in PCa cell lines and orthotopic animal tumours. In addition, AIL blocks tumour growth and metastasis of CRPC. Finally, AIL possesses favourable drug-like properties such as good bioavailability, high solubility, lack of CYP inhibition and low hepatotoxicity. In general, AIL is a potential candidate for the treatment of CRPC.

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