Inverse baseline expression pattern of the NEP/neuropeptides and NFκB/proteasome pathways in androgen-dependent and androgen-independent prostate cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Castration-resistance in prostate cancer (PC) is a critical event hallmarking a switch to a more aggressive phenotype. Neuroendocrine differentiation and upregulation of NFκB transcriptional activity are two mechanisms that have been independently linked to this process. METHODS: We investigated these two pathways together using in vitro models of androgen-dependent (AD) and androgen-independent (AI) PC. We measured cellular levels, activity and surface expression of Neutral Endopeptidase (NEP), levels of secreted Endothelin-1 (ET-1), levels, sub-cellular localisation and DNA binding ability of NFκB, and proteasomal activity in human native PC cell lines (LnCaP and PC-3) modelling AD and AI states. RESULTS: At baseline, AD cells were found to have high NEP expression and activity and low secreted ET-1. In contrast, they exhibited a low-level activation of the NFκB pathway associated with comparatively low 20S proteasome activity. The AI cells showed the exact mirror image, namely increased proteasomal activity resulting in a canonical pathway-mediated NFκB activation, and minimal NEP activity with increased levels of secreted ET-1. CONCLUSIONS: Our results seem to support evidence for divergent patterns of expression of the NFκB/proteasome pathway with relation to components of the NEP/neuropeptide axis in PC cells of different level of androgen dependence. NEP and ET-1 are inversely and directly related to an activated state of the NFκB/proteasome pathway, respectively. A combination therapy targeting both pathways may ultimately prove to be of benefit in clinical practice.