Abstract 233: Polo-like kinase 1 facilitates loss of Pten-induced prostate cancer formation

Abstract Loss of the tumor suppressor Pten (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10) is thought to mediate the majority of prostate cancers, but the molecular mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we demonstrate that Pten-depleted cells suffer from mitotic stress, and that nuclear function of Pten, but not its phosphastase activity, is required to reverse this stress phenotype. Further, depletion of Pten results in elevated expression of Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), a key regulator of the cell cycle. We found that elevated Plk1 is critical for Pten-depleted cells to adapt to mitotic stress for survival, and that re-introduction of wild-type Pten into Pten-null prostate cancer cells reduces the survival dependence on Plk1. We further show that Plk1 confers the tumorigenic competence of Pten-deleted prostate cancer cells in a mouse xenograft model. In order to evaluate the clinical relevance of our finding, we examined the expression level of Plk1 in human prostate cancer tissue assay which includes normal tissue samples, prostate hyperplasia samples and malignant tumor samples. A correlation between overexpression of Plk1 and genetic inactivation of Pten was observed during prostate neoplasia formation. These findings identify a role of Plk1 in facilitating loss of Pten-induced prostate cancer formation, which suggests that Plk1 might be a promising target for prostate cancer patients with inactivating Pten mutations. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 233. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-233