Membrane androgen receptor activation triggers down-regulation of PI-3K/Akt/NF-kappaB activity and induces apoptotic responses via Bad, FasL and caspase-3 in DU145 prostate cancer cells

Using membrane impermeable conjugates of serum albumin covalently linked to testosterone, we show here down-regulation of the activity of pro-survival gene products, namely PI-3K/Akt and NF-κB, in DU145 cells. Testosterone-albumin conjugates further induced FasL expression. A FasL blocking peptide abrogated membrane androgen receptors-dependent apoptosis. In addition, testosterone-albumin conjugates increased caspase-3 and Bad protein activity. The actin cytoskeleton drug cytochalasin B and the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 inhibited FasL induction and caspase-3 activation, indicating that the newly identified Rho/Rock/actin signaling may regulate the downstream pro-apoptotic effectors in DU145 cells. Finally, other steroids or steroid-albumin conjugates did not interfere with these receptors indicating testosterone specificity.Collectively, our results provide novel mechanistic insights pointing to specific pro-apoptotic molecules controlling membrane androgen receptors-induced apoptotic regression of prostate cancer cells and corroborate previously published observations on the potential use of membrane androgen receptor-agonists as novel anti-tumor agents in prostate cancer.An increasing body of scientific evidence points to the existence of two types of androgen receptors: (a) intracellular androgen receptors (iARs) mediating genomic androgen signals resulting in receptor dimerization, nuclear translocation and subsequent activation of androgen-specific target genes (reviewed in [1]) and (b) membrane androgen receptors (mARs) triggering non-genomic signals manifested within minutes of androgen binding (reviewed in [2,3]). Although the exact molecular identity of mAR still remains unknown, it is believed that mAR may represent either (I) a pool of iAR targeted to the plasma membrane and/or associated membrane structures (e.g. lipid rafts or caveolae) mediating rapid androgen effects in the absence of transcriptional activity (reviewed in [4]) or (II) an unknown G-protei