Aiden Deacon, a cancer biology PhD student at the University of Colorado Anschutz, shares insights from his research on the R-spondin family genes and their role in metastatic prostate cancer. He discusses how alterations in RSPO2 are linked to poorer survival rates in patients. The conversation touches on the gene's impact on epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathways, suggesting potential for targeted therapies. Deacon emphasizes the importance of understanding these regulatory mechanisms for advancing cancer treatment.
07:06
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Research Path And Lab Focus
Aiden Deacon introduces himself as a first-year cancer biology PhD student and credits Oncotarget for the opportunity.
He describes working in Justin Wong's lab, which uses multi-omic approaches focused on clinical relevance.
insights INSIGHT
Why RSPO2 Was Targeted
The team focused on RSPO2 because it showed frequent alterations and sits in the oncogenic Wnt pathway.
RSPO2's secreted nature also makes it an attractive potential antibody target.
insights INSIGHT
RSPO2 Alterations Predict Poor Outcomes
RSPO2 alterations were often overexpression events and correlated with worse patient survival.
This link indicates the alterations are clinically meaningful, not just incidental.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Aiden Deacon from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, discusses a research paper he co-authored that was published in Volume 16 of Oncotarget, titled “Dissecting the functional differences and clinical features of R-spondin family members in metastatic prostate cancer.”
DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28758
Correspondence to - Justin Hwang - jhwang@umn.edu
Video interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXKhWWU1gnY
Abstract
This study investigates the R-spondin family of genes (RSPO1/2/3/4), a group of secreted proteins that act as Wnt regulators, and their subsequent role in advanced prostate cancer (PC). When evaluating transcriptomic data from primary and metastatic PC patients, we found that alterations in RSPO2 were more prevalent than in other RSPO family members or Wnt-regulating genes APC and CTNNB1. Further, we found that RSPO2 alterations in PCs were significantly associated with worse disease-free survival. Through our in silico modeling, RSPO2 exhibited strong positive associations with genes regulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and double-negative prostate cancer (DNPC), but had negative correlations with androgen receptor (AR) and AR-associated genes. Furthermore, 3D modeling of RSPO2 revealed structural differences between itself and other RSPOs. In cell lines, RSPO2 overexpression caused up-regulation of EMT pathways, including EMT-regulatory transcription factors ZEB1, ZEB2, and TWIST1. Conversely, this was not observed when CTNNB1 was overexpressed in the same models. These findings highlight that, in PC, RSPO2 functions as a unique member of the R-spondin family by promoting genes and signaling pathways associated with aggressive PC, and RSPO2 amplifications are associated with poor outcomes in PC patients.
Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.28758
Subscribe for free publication alerts from Oncotarget - https://www.oncotarget.com/subscribe/
Keywords - cancer, RSPO2, prostate cancer, Wnt signaling, genomics, therapeutics
About Oncotarget
Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science.
Oncotarget is indexed and archived by PubMed/Medline, PubMed Central, Scopus, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science).
To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com and connect with us:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/
X - https://twitter.com/oncotarget
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/oncotargetjrnl/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@OncotargetJournal
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/
Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0gRwT6BqYWJzxzmjPJwtVh
MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM
Oncotarget