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Projekt Druckansicht

Kontrollierte Histondemethylierung: Ein innovatives Therapiekonzept zur Behandlung des hormonrefraktären Prostatakarzinoms

Fachliche Zuordnung Hämatologie, Onkologie
Förderung Förderung von 2009 bis 2015
Projektkennung Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 102806892
 
Erstellungsjahr 2016

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

Carcinoma of the prostate is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in men in the Western hemisphere. Despite important advances in current androgen deprivation therapy a significant number of patients develop castration resistant prostate cancer and rapidly progress to metastatic disease. Due to current lack of treatment options their disease is final. Thus, the major challenge remains to identify effective therapeutic concepts to fight prostate cancer. Modulating the activities of epigenetic enzymes such as the histone demethylase LSD1 and/or demethylase controlling signalling proteins such as the kinase PRK1 is a therapeutic concept to block tumour growth. Since this strategy is not targeting androgen receptor (AR) directly but rather blocks androgen receptor function by inhibiting the activity of AR-associated epigenetic proteins. Thus, this therapeutic concept potentially preserves the tumour to develop hormone resistance. To verify the concept, we validated in this Reinhart Koselleck-Projekt PRK1 and LSD1 as targets of pharmacological intervention that governs prostate cancer evolution. LSD1 is a major regulator of AR-controlled transcription and genomic integrity. We identified signalling mechanisms that regulate LSD1 function and small molecule inhibitors that block the enzymatic activity of LSD1. Thus, our data paved the way for the intense development of LSD1 inhibitors by pharmaceutical companies, which are currently tested in seven clinical phase I/II studies. Our genetically-modified LSD1 mouse models (knock-out, knock-in, and transgenic mice) provided not only the basis for the validation of these LSD1 inhibitors in vivo, but also uncovered key physiological functions of LSD1 in stem cells maintenance, adipogenesis, myogenesis, and aging. Taken together, this Reinhart Koselleck-Projekt allowed me to identify and analyse basic epigenetic mechanisms, to test them in cellular and animal models of disease and to explore the potential of epigenetic regulators as suitable targets for pharmacological intervention. Clearly, the future impact of this work will deliver novel insights into epigenetic pathways and mechanisms in a variety of disease indications and ultimately will provide novel therapeutic targets and concepts, epigenetic biomarkers and chemical probes that interfere with epigenetic pathways and have the potential as starting points for the development as therapeutic interventions. Finally, and of utmost importance, due to the visionary scope of the proposal, this work would have been impossible without the scientific and financial freedom provided by the Reinhart Koselleck-Projekt.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

 
 

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