Prohibitin: a new way to slow prostate cancer growth

Grant information

Institution – Imperial College London
Researchers – Professor Charlotte Bevan
Grant award - £243,893
Duration of funding – 2011-2014
Status - Complete
Reference – PG10-25

The project in a nutshell

• Charlotte and her team have previously shown that the protein, prohibitin, is found less often in prostate cancer cells than normal cells.
• MicroRNAs are small segments of genetic material that are used naturally in the body to reduce the amount of specific proteins.
• Through blocking the microRNA, miR27a, this restored higher levels of prohibitin and reduced prostate cancer growth.

Why did we fund this project?

• Hormones such as testosterone, play an important role in prostate cancer growth.
• Conventional therapies for prostate cancer can include hormone therapy to reduce levels of hormones, but this can cause side-effects as hormones play many other roles in the body.
• Prostate cancer can also become resistant to hormone therapy, which demonstrates the urgent need for new therapies.
• Charlotte and her team are investigating microRNAs as a new way of treating prostate cancer that promises to have less side-effects.

What did the team do?

• The team used computational methods to find microRNAs which can directly bind to prohibitin, of which miR27a was the most promising.
• Using techniques to measure the amount of short pieces of RNA, Charlotte and her team assessed whether more miR27a is present in prostate cancer samples than non-cancer samples.
• The team also used methods to create compounds which inhibit miR27a in prostate cancer cells to see if the amount of prohibitin changes.

What did the team achieve?

• The team showed that miR27a is important in controlling the amount of prohibitin.
• The team developed compounds to inhibit miR27a, which increased the amount of prohibitin, and showed promise in reducing prostate cancer growth.
• Find more information on continued work on miR27a by Dr. Hector Keun.

How will this benefit men?

• This study shows the promise of targeting microRNAs in reducing prostate cancer growth and could form a new future treatment for men, with fewer side-effects than conventional therapies.
• More work is needed in the future to show direct benefits to men, but this work is an important first step in finding a new way to help stop the progression of prostate cancer.