Abstract
The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase is a master regulator of protein synthesis that couples nutrient sensing to cell growth and cancer. However, the downstream translationally regulated nodes of gene expression that may direct cancer development are poorly characterized. Using ribosome profiling, we uncover specialized translation of the prostate cancer genome by oncogenic mTOR signalling, revealing a remarkably specific repertoire of genes involved in cell proliferation, metabolism and invasion. We extend these findings by functionally characterizing a class of translationally controlled pro-invasion messenger RNAs that we show direct prostate cancer invasion and metastasis downstream of oncogenic mTOR signalling. Furthermore, we develop a clinically relevant ATP site inhibitor of mTOR, INK128, which reprograms this gene expression signature with therapeutic benefit for prostate cancer metastasis, for which there is presently no cure. Together, these findings extend our understanding of how the ‘cancerous’ translation machinery steers specific cancer cell behaviours, including metastasis, and may be therapeutically targeted.
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Primary accessions
Gene Expression Omnibus
Data deposits
Small-RNA sequencing data were deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) under accession number GSE35469.
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Acknowledgements
We thank M. Barna for critical discussion and reading of this manuscript; T. Wilson for support and advice; T. Sanders and E. Llagostera-Martin for technical support with confocal microscopy; L. Li, E. Ulm, L. Kessler, J. Kucharski and L. Darjania for technical support for the discovery and development of INK128. J. Kurhanewicz and R. Bok of the Surbeck Institute for Advanced Imaging for technical support and MRI images; N. Sonenberg for providing the 4EBP1/2 double knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts; J. M. Shen for support; and K. Tong for editing the manuscript. A.C.H. is supported in part by the American Cancer Society (119084-PF-10-233-01-TBE), and is a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator, and a recipient of the DOD Prostate Cancer Training Award. This work is supported by NIH R01 CA154916 (D.R.), NIH R01 CA140456 (D.R.) and the Phi Beta Psi Sorority (D.R.). D.R. is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar.
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A.C.H. and D.R. conceived the experiments. A.C.H., M.P.E., M.R.J., A.S., E.Y.S., C.R.S., C.C. and S.W. performed the experiments, PtenL/L preclinical trials, and collected the data. N.T.I. and J.S.W. contributed to ribosomal profiling data analysis. M.J.B. provided pathology support. Y.L., P.R., M.M., S.W., K.J., M.E.F., K.M.S. and C.R. developed and/or supported development of INK128, conducted pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and preclinical studies. A.C.H. and D.R. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed results and edited the manuscript.
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Y.L., M.R.J., S.W., P.R., M.M., K.J. and C.R. are employees of Intellikine, Inc. K.M.S. is a stockholder and consultant for Intellikine.
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Hsieh, A., Liu, Y., Edlind, M. et al. The translational landscape of mTOR signalling steers cancer initiation and metastasis. Nature 485, 55–61 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10912
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10912
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