Selective androgen receptor degrader (SARD) to overcome antiandrogen resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer

  • Elife. 2023 Jan 19:12:e70700. doi: 10.7554/eLife.70700.
Meng Wu  #  1  2  3 ,  Rongyu Zhang  #  4 ,  Zixiong Zhang  #  1 ,  Ning Zhang  1 ,  Chenfan Li  4 ,  Yongli Xie  1 ,  Haoran Xia  2 ,  Fangjiao Huang  4 ,  Ruoying Zhang  4 ,  Ming Liu  2 ,  Xiaoyu Li  1 ,  Shan Cen  1 ,  Jinming Zhou  1  4
Affiliations
  • 1. Institute of Medicinal Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
  • 2. Department of Urology, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
  • 3. Department of Medical Research Center, State Key Laboratory of Complex Severe and Rare Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
  • 4. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 36656639 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.70700
Abstract

In patients with castration-resistant prostate Cancer (CRPC), clinical resistances such as Androgen Receptor (AR) mutation, AR overexpression, and AR splice variants (ARVs) limit the effectiveness of second-generation antiandrogens (SGAs). Several strategies have been implemented to develop novel antiandrogens to circumvent the occurring resistance. Here, we found and identified a bifunctional small molecule Z15, which is both an effective AR antagonist and a selective AR degrader. Z15 could directly interact with the ligand-binding domain (LBD) and activation function-1 region of AR, and promote AR degradation through the Proteasome pathway. In vitro and in vivo studies showed that Z15 efficiently suppressed AR, AR mutants and ARVs transcription activity, downregulated mRNA and protein levels of AR downstream target genes, thereby overcoming AR LBD mutations, AR amplification, and ARVs-induced SGAs resistance in CRPC. In conclusion, our data illustrate the synergistic importance of AR antagonism and degradation in advanced prostate Cancer treatment.

Keywords
androgen receptor; antiandrogen; cancer biology; castration-resistant prostate cancer; degrader; enzalutamide resistance; human.
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