Reprogramming landscape highlighted by dynamic transcriptomes in therapy-induced neuroendocrine differentiation

Metastatic and locally advanced prostate cancer is treated by pharmacological targeting of androgen synthesis and androgen response via androgen signaling inhibitors (ASI), most of which target the androgen receptor (AR). However, ASI therapy invariably fails after 1–2 years. Emerging clinical evidence indicates that in response to ASI therapy, the AR-positive prostatic adenocarcinoma can transdifferentiate into AR-negative neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) in 17–25 % treated patients, likely through a process called neuroendocrine differentiation (NED). Despite high clinical incidence, the epigenetic pathways underlying NED and ASI therapy-induced NED remain unclear. By utilizing a combinatorial single cell and bulk mRNA sequencing workflow, we demonstrate in a time-resolved manner that following AR inhibition with enzalutamide, prostate cancer cells exhibit immediate loss of canonical AR signaling activity and simultaneous morphological change from epithelial to NE-like (NEL) morphology, followed by activation of specific neuroendocrine (NE)-associated transcriptional programs. Additionally, we observed that activation of NE-associated pathways occurs prior to complete repression of epithelial or canonical AR pathways, a phenomenon also observed clinically via heterogenous AR status in clinical samples. Our model indicates that, mechanistically, ASI therapy induces NED with initial morphological change followed by deactivation of canonical AR target genes and subsequent de-repression of NE-associated target genes, while retaining AR expression and transcriptional shift towards non-canonical AR activity. Coupled with scRNA-seq and CUT&RUN analysis, our model system can provide a platform for screening of potential therapeutic agents that may prevent ASI-induced NED or reverse the NED process.