Tumor suppressor role of RBM22 in prostate cancer acting as a dual-factor regulating alternative splicing and transcription of key oncogenic genes

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among men. Consequently, the identification of novel molecular targets for treatment is urgently needed to improve patients' outcomes. Our group recently reported that some elements of the cellular machinery controlling alternative-splicing might be useful as potential novel therapeutic tools against advanced PCa. However, the presence and functional role of RBM22, a key spliceosome component, in PCa remains unknown. Therefore, RBM22 levels were firstly interrogated in 3 human cohorts and 2 preclinical mouse models (TRAMP/Pbsn-Myc). Results were validated in in silico using 2 additional cohorts. Then, functional effects in response to RBM22 overexpression (proliferation, migration, tumorspheres/colonies formation) were tested in PCa models in vitro (LNCaP, 22Rv1, and PC-3 cell-lines) and in vivo (xenograft). High throughput methods (ie, RNA-seq, nCounter PanCancer Pathways Panel) were performed in RBM22 overexpressing cells and xenograft tumors. We found that RBM22 levels were down-regulated (mRNA and protein) in PCa samples, and were inversely associated with key clinical aggressiveness features. Consistently, a gradual reduction of RBM22 from non-tumor to poorly differentiated PCa samples was observed in transgenic models (TRAMP/Pbsn-Myc). Notably, RBM22 overexpression decreased aggressiveness features in vitro, and in vivo. These actions were associated with the splicing dysregulation of numerous genes and to the downregulation of critical upstream regulators of cell-cycle (i.e., CDK1/CCND1/EPAS1). Altogether, our data demonstrate that RBM22 plays a critical pathophysiological role in PCa and invites to suggest that targeting negative regulators of RBM22 expression/activity could represent a novel therapeutic strategy to tackle this disease.