Frontiers in Oncology (Dec 2022)

siAKR1C3@PPA complex nucleic acid nanoparticles inhibit castration-resistant prostate cancer in vitro

  • Xiaoli Cui,
  • Zhou Yao,
  • Tianyu Zhao,
  • Jiahui Guo,
  • Jipeng Ding,
  • Siwei Zhang,
  • Zuowen Liang,
  • Zhengren Wei,
  • Alexis Zoa,
  • Yuantong Tian,
  • Jing Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fonc.2022.1069033
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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IntroductionAKR1C3, as a crucial androgenic enzyme, implicates the androgen biosynthesis and promoting prostate cancer cell growth in vitro. This study provides a new gene therapy strategy for targeting AKR1C3 to treat castration-resistant prostate cancer.MethodssiAKR1C3@PPA is assembled from PEG3500, PAMAM, Aptamer-PSMA, and siRNA for AKR1C3. We analyzed the relationship between AKR1C3 expression and the survival rate of prostate cancer patients based on the GEPIA online database to perform disease-free survival, and found that AKR1C3 may be an important factor leading to poor prognosis in prostate cancer. Considering AKR1C3 as a therapeutic target for castration-resistant prostate cancer, we constructed a complex nucleic acid nanoparticle, siAKR1C3@PPA to investigate the inhibitory effect on castration-resistant prostate cancer.ResultsAptamer-PSMA acts as a target to guide siAKR1C3@PPA into PSMA-positive prostate cancer cells and specifically down regulate AKR1C3. Cyclin D1 was decreased as a result of siAKR1C3@PPA treatment. Changes in Cyclin D1 were consistent with decreased expression of AKR1C3 in LNCaP-AKR1C3 cells and 22RV1 cells. Furthermore, in the LNCaP-AKR1C3 group, 1070 proteins were upregulated and 1015 proteins were downregulated compared to the LNCaP group according to quantitative 4D label-free proteomics. We found 42 proteins involved in cell cycle regulation. In a validated experiment, we demonstrated that PCNP and CINP were up-regulated, and TERF2 and TP53 were down-regulated by western blotting.ConclusionWe concluded that siAKR1C3@PPA may arrest the cell cycle and affect cell proliferation.

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