Androgens, acting through the androgen receptor (AR), are responsibleforthedevelopmentofthemalephenotypeduring embryogenesis, the achievement of sexual maturation at puberty,andthemaintenanceofmalereproductivefunctionand behavior in adulthood. In addition, androgens affect a wide variety of nonreproductive tissues. Moreover, aberrant androgen action plays a critical role in multiple pathologies, including prostate cancer and androgen insensitivity syndromes. The formation of a productive AR transcriptional complex requires the functional and structural interaction of theARwithitscoregulators.Inthelastdecade,anoverwhelming and ever increasing number of proteins have been proposed to possess AR coactivating or corepressing characteristics. Intriguingly, a vast diversity of functions has been ascribed to these proteins, indicating that a multitude of cellular functions and signals converge on the AR to regulate its function. The current review aims to provide an overview of the AR coregulator proteins identified to date and to propose a classification of these AR coregulator proteins according to the function(s) ascribed to them. Taken together, this approach will increase our understanding of the cellular pathways that converge on the AR to ensure an appropriate transcriptional response to androgens. (Endocrine Reviews 28: 778–808, 2007)

https://www.hormonebalance.org/images/documents/Heerners%2007%20AR%20coregulat%20ER_1312316709.pdf

Androgen Receptor (AR) Coregulators: A Diversity of Functions Converging on and Regulating the AR Transcriptional Complex

The androgen receptor (AR) signaling axis plays a critical role in the development, function and homeostasis of the prostate. The classical action of AR is to regulate gene transcriptional processes via AR nuclear translocation, binding to androgen response elements on target genes and recruitment of, or crosstalk with, transcription factors. Prostate cancer initiation and progression is also uniquely dependent on AR. Androgen deprivation therapy remains the standard of care for treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Despite an initial favorable response, almost all patients invariably progress to a more aggressive, castrate-resistant phenotype. Considerable evidence now supports the concept that development of castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is causally related to continued transactivation of AR. Understanding the critical events and complexities of AR signaling in the progression to CRPC is essential in developing successful future therapies. This review provides a synopsis of AR structure and signaling in prostate cancer progression, with a special focus on recent findings on the role of AR in CRPC. Clinical implications of these findings and potential directions for future research are also outlined.

Androgen receptor signaling in prostate cancer development and progression.

Fluorescence microscopy provides an efficient and unique approach to study fixed and living cells because of its versatility, specificity, and high sensitivity. Fluorescence microscopes can both detect the fluorescence emitted from labeled molecules in biological samples as images or photometric data from which intensities and emission spectra can be deduced. By exploiting the characteristics of fluorescence, various techniques have been developed that enable the visualization and analysis of complex dynamic events in cells, organelles, and sub-organelle components within the biological specimen. The techniques described here are fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), the related fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP), fluorescence localization after photobleaching (FLAP), Forster or fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and the different ways how to measure FRET, such as acceptor bleaching, sensitized emission, polarization anisotropy, and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). First, a brief introduction into the mechanisms underlying fluorescence as a physical phenomenon and fluorescence, confocal, and multiphoton microscopy is given. Subsequently, these advanced microscopy techniques are introduced in more detail, with a description of how these techniques are performed, what needs to be considered, and what practical advantages they can bring to cell biological research.

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/17/4/4047/pdf

Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques—FRAP, FLIP, FLAP, FRET and FLIM

The metabolic functions of androgen receptor (AR) in normal prostate are circumvented in prostate cancer (PCa) to drive tumor growth, and the AR also can acquire new growth-promoting functions during PCa development and progression through genetic and epigenetic mechanisms. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT, surgical or medical castration) is the standard treatment for metastatic PCa, but patients invariably relapse despite castrate androgen levels (castration-resistant PCa, CRPC). Early studies from many groups had shown that AR was highly expressed and transcriptionally active in CRPC, and indicated that steroids from the adrenal glands were contributing to this AR activity. More recent studies showed that CRPC cells had increased expression of enzymes mediating androgen synthesis from adrenal steroids, and could synthesize androgens de novo from cholesterol. Phase III clinical trials showing a survival advantage in CRPC for treatment with abiraterone (inhibitor of the enzyme CYP17A1 required for androgen synthesis that markedly reduces androgens and precursor steroids) and for enzalutamide (new AR antagonist) have now confirmed that AR activity driven by residual androgens makes a major contribution to CRPC, and led to the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of both agents. Unfortunately, patients treated with these agents for advanced CRPC generally relapse within a year and AR appears to be active in the relapsed tumors, but the molecular mechanisms mediating intrinsic or acquired resistance to these AR-targeted therapies remain to be defined. This review outlines AR functions that contribute to PCa development and progression, the roles of intratumoral androgen synthesis and AR structural alterations in driving AR activity in CRPC, mechanisms of action for abiraterone and enzalutamide, and possible mechanisms of resistance to these agents.

Androgen receptor functions in castration-resistant prostate cancer and mechanisms of resistance to new agents targeting the androgen axis

Activation of the androgen receptor is crucial for prostate cancer growth at all points of the illness. Current therapies targeting the androgen receptor, including androgen-depletion approaches and anti-androgens, do not completely inhibit the receptor activity. Prostate cancer cells develop resistance to castration by acquiring changes that include androgen-receptor overexpression and overexpression of enzymes involved in androgen biosynthesis, which result in reactivation of the receptor. Based on an understanding of these resistance mechanisms and androgen biosynthesis pathways, new anti-androgens and androgen-depleting agents have been developed. Notably, promising activity has been shown in early phase trials by MDV3100, a new anti-androgen designed for activity in prostate cancer model systems with overexpressed androgen receptor, and by abiraterone acetate, a CYP17A inhibitor that blocks steroid biosynthesis in the adrenal gland and possibly within the tumour. Both agents are undergoing phase 3 testing. Here, we review the basic science and clinical development of these and other agents.

/pdf/anti-androgens-and-androgen-depleting-therapies-in-prostate-46rnvwn17e.pdf

Anti-androgens and androgen-depleting therapies in prostate cancer: new agents for an established target

Steroid receptors regulate gene expression in a ligand-dependent manner by binding specific DNA sequences. Ligand binding also changes the conformation of the ligand binding domain (LBD), allowing interaction with coregulators via LxxLL motifs. Androgen receptors (ARs) preferentially interact with coregulators containing LxxLL-related FxxLF motifs. The AR is regulated at an extra level by interaction of an FQNLF motif in the N-terminal domain with the C-terminal LBD (N/C interaction). Although it is generally recognized that AR coregulator and N/C interactions are essential for transcription regulation, their spatiotemporal organization is largely unknown. We performed simultaneous fluorescence resonance energy transfer and fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching measurements in living cells expressing ARs double tagged with yellow and cyan fluorescent proteins. We provide evidence that AR N/C interactions occur predominantly when ARs are mobile, possibly to prevent unfavorable or untimely cofactor interactions. N/C interactions are largely lost when AR transiently binds to DNA, predominantly in foci partly overlapping transcription sites. AR coregulator interactions occur preferentially when ARs are bound to DNA.

/pdf/compartmentalization-of-androgen-receptor-protein-protein-4psfmd3d3m.pdf

Compartmentalization of androgen receptor protein–protein interactions in living cells

Androgens exert their key function in development and maintenance of the male phenotype via the androgen receptor (AR). Ligand-activated ARs also play a role in prostate cancer. Despite initial success of treatment by testosterone depletion or blocking of androgen binding to the AR using antiandrogens, eventually all tumors escape to a therapy resistant stage. Development of novel therapies by other antagonistic ligands or compounds that target events subsequent to ligand binding is very important. Here, we validate a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) based imaging assay for ligand-induced AR activity, based on the conformational change in the AR caused by interaction between the FQNLF motif in the N-terminal domain and the cofactor binding groove in the ligand-binding domain (N/C-interaction). We test the assay using known agonistic and antagonistic ligands on wild type AR and specific AR mutants. Our data show a strong correlation between the ligand-induced AR N/C-interaction and transcriptional activity in wild type AR, but also in AR mutants with broadened ligand responsiveness. Moreover, we explore additional readouts of this assay that contribute to the understanding of the working mechanism of the ligands. Together, we present a sensitive assay that can be used to quantitatively assess the activity of agonistic and antagonistic AR ligands.

https://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/cyto.a.22284

Sónia M. Cunha

Papers

Compartmentalization of androgen receptor protein–protein interactions in living cells

A multi-parameter imaging assay identifies different stages of ligand-induced androgen receptor activation