title: Zeb1 promotes androgen independence of prostate cancer via induction of stem cell-like properties.
abstract: Current androgen deprivation therapy often leads to androgen independence. However, mechanism of the therapeutic failure is still not well understood. Here, we demonstrate elevated expression of Zeb1 in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells and prostate tumors of castrated PTEN conditional knockout mice. While Zeb1 shRNA resulted in a sensitization of androgen-independent prostate cancer cells, forced Zeb1 expression caused androgen-dependent prostate cancer cells to be more resistant to androgen deprivation. Moreover, such effects appeared to be mediated by induction of pluripotent genes or stem cell-like properties. Collectively, these findings suggest that inhibition of Zeb1 might be a potential therapeutic strategy for treatment of androgen-independent prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Kaiqing
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
authors.forename: Ru
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China gao.weiqiang@sjtu.edu.cn rangru@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Wei-Qiang
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Gao
keywords: Zeb1; androgen-independent prostate cancer; cancer stem cells; epithelial–mesenchymal transition