Unveiling ETS transcription factors and MET receptor partnership in prostate cancer progression and treatment
Prostate cancer, the most prevalent malignancy among men, demonstrates a relatively favourable prognosis; however, when it spreads to the bones, survival rate dramatically declines. The advent of bone metastases inflicts upon patients an aggressive prostate cancer, constituting the primary cause of mortality. Moreover, bone metastases remain incurable and very painful to the patients. MET receptor and ETS gene fusions are important actors in the progression of the disease. ETS fusions, in particular, wield the capacity to induce migratory and invasive properties of prostate cancer cells, while MET receptor, through its signalling cascades, is able to activate transcription factors. Both MET receptor and ETS fusions are intricately interlinked with high-grade prostate cancer. In this report, we illuminate, for the first time, a potential interplay between the transcription factors ERG and ETV1, and MET receptor within prostate cancer models. Our findings demonstrated that MET is important in the maintain of ERG and ETV1 expression and in return, ERG and ETV1 are important in high MET activation, leading to the aggressiveness of prostate cancer cells.