Prostate cancer cancer-associated fibroblasts with stable markers post-androgen deprivation therapy associated with tumor progression and castration resistant prostate cancer
The specificity and clinical relevance of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in prostate cancer (PCa), as well as the impact of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) on CAFs, remain to be fully elucidated. Employing cell lineage diversity and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we pinpointed a unique CAF signature exclusive to PCa. The specificity of this CAF signature was validated through single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), cell line RNA sequencing, and immunohistochemistry. This signature associates CAFs with tumor progression, elevated Gleason scores, and the emergence of castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Utilizing scRNA-seq on collected samples, we demonstrated that the CAF-specific signature is not altered by ADT, maintaining its peak signal output. Identifying a PCa-specific CAF signature and observing signaling changes in CAFs after ADT lay an essential groundwork for further PCa studies. Overall design: One month after androgen deprivation therapy, single-cell suspensions were obtained from 2 cases of prostate cancer, and samples were loaded for 10xGenomics scRNA-seq