The interaction of wnt-11 and signalling cascades in prostate cancer [thesis]

Castration resistant prostate cancer proposes an array of issues in terms of treatment options. It is therefore necessary to decipher the underlying mechanism involved in androgen independent prostate cancer and neuroendocrine differentiation, which is associated with malignant and metastatic disease. Wnt-11 has been previously shown to be associated with the more malignant version of the disease by being involved in the cellular proliferation and differentiation of the cancerous cells. The methodology adopted to identify signalling pathways triggered upon Wnt-11 activation were inhibition of the JNK, PKA, PI3K and mTOR pathway with various concentrations of inhibitors, proceeding this proliferation, migration and gene expression experiments were carried out three times, each experiment containing a triplet of each condition. Results collected were significant in all experiments excluding the proliferation results involving the PKA pathway. A preliminary mechanism was established between Wnt-11 and the mentioned pathways with neuroendocrine differentiation. The experiments carried out along with the correlated data were novel and brings research one step closer to understanding the mechanism of androgen independent prostate cancer, which in turn can hopefully relay to new therapy options which are currently absent on the market.