Inhibitor of p52 NF-κB subunit and androgen receptor (AR) interaction reduces growth of human prostate cancer cells by abrogating nuclear translocation of p52 and phosphorylated AR(ser81)

Accumulating evidence shows that androgen receptor (AR) activation and signaling plays a key role in growth and progression in all stages of prostate cancer, even under low androgen levels or in the absence of androgen in the castration-resistant prostate cancer. Sustained activation of AR under androgen-deprived conditions may be due to its interaction with co-activators, such as p52 NF-κB subunit, and/or an increase in its stability by phosphorylation that delays its degradation. Here we identified a specific inhibitor of AR/p52 interaction, AR/p52-02, via a high throughput screen based on the reconstitution of Gaussia Luciferase. We found that AR/p52-02 markedly inhibited growth of both castration-resistant C4-2 (IC(50) ∼6 μM) and parental androgen-dependent LNCaP (IC(50) ∼4 μM) human prostate cancer cells under low androgen conditions. Growth inhibition was associated with significantly reduced nuclear p52 levels and DNA binding activity, as well as decreased phosphorylation of AR at serine 81, increased AR ubiquitination, and decreased AR transcriptional activity as indicated by decreased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) mRNA levels in both cell lines. AR/p52-02 also caused a reduction in levels of p21(WAF/CIP1), which is a direct AR targeted gene in that its expression correlates with androgen stimulation and mitogenic proliferation in prostate cancer under physiologic levels of androgen, likely by disrupting the AR signaling axis. The reduced level of cyclinD1 reported previously for this compound may be due to the reduction in nuclear presence and activity of p52, which directly regulates cyclinD1 expression, as well as the reduction in p21(WAF/CIP1), since p21(WAF/CIP1) is reported to stabilize nuclear cyclinD1 in prostate cancer. Overall, the data suggest that specifically inhibiting the interaction of AR with p52 and blocking activity of p52 and pARser81 may be an effective means of reducing castration-resistant prostate cancer cell growth.