LAUSR

androgen receptor signaling induces Snailmediated epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity in prostate cancer. Cancer Res. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-2169 (2017) Snail was the only consistently upregulated EMP driver at both the mRNA and protein levels P. M oran/M cm ilan Puishers im ed Epithelial-to-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP), a process linked with the development of both metastases and drug resistance, is known to be involved in the progression of prostate cancer, although the mechanisms that mediate this effect are poorly understood. Now, new data from in vitro and in vivo models indicate that enzalutamide, a widely used form of androgen deprivation therapy, de-represses the EMP-promoting transcription factor SNAI1 (also known as Snail). Researchers found that enzalutamide induced the expression of several markers of EMP, including Snail, in cells of the C4-2 prostate cancer cell line. This effect was then confirmed to be AR-mediated by the observation that androgens reverse the effects of enzalutamide on Snail expression, and that AR knockdown attenuates both of these effects. The importance of Snail to EMP was also confirmed in other P R O S TAT E C A N C E R