Poly r(C) binding protein-1 is central to maintenance of cancer stem cells in prostate cancer cells.

Aims: To investigate global proteomic changes induced in CD44+CD24- stem cells isolated from the prostate cancer cell lines, LNCaP and DU145, post prolonged TGF-β treatment in order to understand underlying mechanisms that promote stemness in prostate cancer cells.

Methods: CD44+CD133+α2β1Integrin+CD24- population was isolated from mock or TGF-β treated (7 days) prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP, through fluorescent activated cell sorting. Cell lysates were obtained from the ±TGF-β cell population and proteomics profiling (MS/MS) was performed by mass spectrometry. Relative enrichment or depletion in the CD44+CD24-population post-TGF-β treatment was determined relative to mock-treated CD44+CD24- cells post normalization to GAPDH expression levels. RESULTS obtained from MS/MS were validated using immunoblotting. Functional validation of one putative regulator was performed using gain-of-function strategy to investigate its role in rendering stemness in LNCaP and DU145 cells in vitro and in promoting tumorigenicity in vivo.

Results: TGF-β treatment caused significant enrichment of CD44+CD24- population in LNCaP cells (22.35 ± 0.94% in mock treated vs 95.23 ± 2.34% in TGF-β treated cells; P < 0.01), which were also positive for CD133 and α2β1Integrin. Mass spectrometry analysis of the enriched cell population revealed that sixty-three proteins were either up- or down-regulated greater than five folds, out of which the poly r(C) binding protein (PCBP)-1 was the most down-regulated (9.31 ± 0.05 folds). Ectopic overexpression of PCBP1 in LNCaP and DU145 cells not only attenuated enrichment of CD44+CD133+CD24- population in these cells following TGF-β treatment, but also significantly decreased tumorigenicity of the stem cell subset, as assessed by in vitro soft agar colony formation and in vivo xenograft assays.

Conclusion: Our proteomic profiling and subsequent validation indicate that PCBP1 is central to CSCs enrichment and functionality in prostate cancer.