Abstract A018: Pathways to enzalutamide resistance: An analysis of proteomic changes in enzalutamide-resistant prostate cancer cells
Authors: Molokwu Chidi N. , Kristensen Anders , Sutton Chris 
Published: February 2024

Introduction: Enzalutamide is indicated for treatment of castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), but therapeutic effect is transient, with improvement in survival of approximately 4 months. The mechanisms by which prostate cancer (PCa) cells survive Enzalutamide therapy are poorly understood, but androgen receptor (AR) and non-AR mediated mechanisms have been reported from transcriptome studies. We performed unbiased high resolution proteomic analyses to identify proteins and pathways that are involved in survival and progression in Enzalutamide treatment failure. Materials & Methods: Enzalutamide-resistant MR49F and MR42D cell lines were maintained in standard medium (DMEM with 5% FBS) with Enzalutamide 10µM. Parental LNCaP cells were grown in standard medium. For perturbation, MR49F and MR42D cells were then changed to standard medium with either Enzalutamide 10µM (ENZA) or DMSO (control) for 7 days in. Medium was changed every 48 hours. Protein lysates from 4 biological replicates were labeled using a Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) assay and subjected to mass spectrometry (MS). Protein abundance was measured and significant differences in expression were analysed using a 2-way t-test with a permutation based false detection rate (FDR) of 0.05 and 250 randomisations in the Perseus software suite. MR49F and MR42D were compared to parental LNCaP, and MR49F and MR42D were compared on and off Enzalutamide treatment pressure. Functional biological pathways involved were identified using the DAVID and WebGestalt online pathway analysis tools. Results: MS identified 5364 proteins. Of these, 247 (180 up, 67 down) were differentially expressed by at least 50% in both MR49F and MR42D cell lines relative to parental LNCaP cells. When MR49F and MR42D cell lines were grown with or without Enzalutamide pressure, 5 proteins (4 up, 1 down) were regulated by at least 50% in both cell lines (ANLN, NIN, UQCRB, HIST1H3A and S100P). Pathway analyses with the differentially expressed and regulated proteins identified perturbations in biological pathways with a high representation of pathways related to metabolism, including amino acid and fatty acid metabolism, ascorbate and propanoate metabolism, drug transport and metabolism, and cell adhesion molecules. Conclusions: This unbiased proteomic analysis of Enzalutamide-resistant PCa cells identified proteins and pathways that may be essential for PCa cell survival and progression during Enzalutamide therapy failure. Enzalutamide therapy failure appears to involve some non-AR mediated mechanisms which may be targeted for therapeutic benefit. A better understanding of the mechanisms of Enzalutamide resistance could lead to development of novel therapies for post-Enzalutamide disease progression.

Citation Format: Chidi N. Molokwu, Anders Kristensen, Chris Sutton. Pathways to enzalutamide resistance: An analysis of proteomic changes in enzalutamide-resistant prostate cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Translating Cancer Evolution and Data Science: The Next Frontier; 2023 Dec 3-6; Boston, Massachusetts. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(3 Suppl_2):Abstract nr A018.