Movember is an international annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness for men's health issues, such as prostate cancer. We are participating in this movement by highlighting the GCI's involvement in prostate cancer research.
Prof. Vincent Giguère works on the regulation of gene expression in prostate cancer and how it contributes to disease progression by rewiring hormone (androgen) signaling and metabolism to support tumour growth. His work has been supported by a Terry Fox New Frontiers Program Project Grant, as well as by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Consortium Québecois pour la Découverte de Médicaments (CQDM), the Cancer Research Society (CRS) and Génome Québec.
Publication highlights:
Androgen-Dependent Repression of ERRγ Reprograms Metabolism in Prostate Cancer. Audet-Walsh É, et al. Cancer Res. 2017 Jan 15;77(2):378-389. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-1204. PMID: 27821488
Nuclear mTOR acts as a transcriptional integrator of the androgen signaling pathway in prostate cancer. Audet-Walsh É, et al. Genes Dev. 2017 Jun 15;31(12):1228-1242. doi: 10.1101/gad.299958.117. PMID: 28724614
The mTOR chromatin-bound interactome in prostate cancer. Dufour CR, et al. Cell Rep. 2022 Mar 22;38(12):110534. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110534. PMID: 35320709
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Prof. Michel Tremblay has discovered important roles for phosphatases, enzymes that control cellular signaling pathways, in prostate cancer. He won a Movember Discovery Grant to study how prostate cancers become hormone-independent, and his work on prostate cancer has also been supported by CIHR, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Prostate Cancer Canada, as well as the Jeanne and Jean-Louis Levesque Chair in Cancer Research.
David Labbé, alumnus from Prof. Tremblay’s lab, is now a GCI Associate Member and a Principal Investigator at the Research Institute of the Æ»¹ûÒùÔº Health Centre with a lab focused on prostate cancer genetics and epigenetics, as well as the influence of diet on prostate cancer progression.
Publication highlights:
PTP1B is an androgen receptor-regulated phosphatase that promotes the progression of prostate cancer. Lessard L, et al. Cancer Res. 2012 Mar 15;72(6):1529-37. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-2602. PMID: 22282656
Prostate cancer genetic-susceptibility locus on chromosome 20q13 is amplified and coupled to androgen receptor-regulation in metastatic tumors. Labbé DP, et al. Mol Cancer Res. 2014 Feb;12(2):184-9. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-13-0477. PMID: 24379448
PTP1B Deficiency Enables the Ability of a High-Fat Diet to Drive the Invasive Character of PTEN-Deficient Prostate Cancers. Labbé DP, et al. Cancer Res. 2016 Jun 1;76(11):3130-5. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-15-1501. PMID: 27020859
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Prof. Jose Teodoro won a Movember Discovery Grant to study how a protein known as the prorenin receptor (PRR) is involved in prostate cancer. His work has also been supported by CIHR, CRS, the Canadian Cancer Society, Prostate Cancer Canada and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec - Santé (FRQS).
Publication highlights:
V-ATPase-associated prorenin receptor is upregulated in prostate cancer after PTEN loss. Mohammad AH, et al. Oncotarget. 2019 Aug 13;10(48):4923-4936. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.27075. PMID: 31452834
p53 inhibits angiogenesis by inducing the production of Arresten. Assadian S, et al. Cancer Res. 2012 Mar 1;72(5):1270-9. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-11-2348. PMID: 22253229
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Prof. Peter Siegel has discovered genes that are important in prostate cancer metastasis to the bones, its most common metastatic site. The expression of these genes can predict outcome in prostate cancer patients. His work was supported by a Prostate Cancer Canada Discovery Grant, the Terry Fox Research Institute, the Réseau de Recherche sur le Cancer (RRCancer) of the FRQS, and by CIHR.
Publication highlights:
CCN3/Nephroblastoma Overexpressed Is a Functional Mediator of Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis That Is Associated with Poor Patient Prognosis. Dankner M, et al. Am J Pathol. 2019 Jul;189(7):1451-1461. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2019.04.006. PMID: 31202437. *Collaboration with the Canadian Prostate Cancer Biomarker Network
Exosomal Release of L-Plastin by Breast Cancer Cells Facilitates Metastatic Bone Osteolysis. Tiedemann K, et al. Transl Oncol. 2019 Mar;12(3):462-474. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2018.11.014. PMID: 30583289. *Collaboration led by Dr. Svetlana Komarova, Æ»¹ûÒùÔº Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences
LEGACY
Prof. Maxime Bouchard led a ground-breaking research program that focused on understanding prostate development and the role of stem cells as a means of understanding prostate cancer and identifying new treatment strategies. He was the recipient of a Pilot Grant from the Movember Foundation and his work was also supported by the CRS, CIHR, Prostate Cancer Canada, the FRQS, and a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Genetics of the Urogenital System.
Publication highlights:
Lineage Specification from Prostate Progenitor Cells Requires Gata3-Dependent Mitotic Spindle Orientation. Shafer MER, et al. Stem Cell Reports. 2017 Apr 11;8(4):1018-1031. PMID: 28285879
Regulation of stem/progenitor cell maintenance by BMP5 in prostate homeostasis and cancer initiation. Tremblay M, et al. Elife. 2020 Sep 7;9:e54542. PMID: 32894216
Gata3 antagonizes cancer progression in Pten-deficient prostates. Nguyen AH, et al. Hum Mol Genet. 2013 Jun 15;22(12):2400-10. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddt088. PMID: 23428429