Bone Morphogenetic Proteins, Antagonists and Receptors in Prostate Cancer

摘要

Prostate Cancer is a significant cancer in elderly men. In year 2000 nearly 200,000 cases were diagnosed. Unfortunately over 40,000 patients succumbed to this horrendous cancer. Death is preceded by a characteristic triad of diffuse osteoblastic-osteosclerotic skeletal metastases, bone pain and pathologic fractures. A great majority of prostate cancer metastasize to bone, especially spine and pelvis, and cause pathologic fractures due to osteosclerosis. Bone Morphogenetic Proteins (BMPs) are critical signaling molecules in new bone formation and are expressed in prostate. This work investigates BMP receptors and BMP antagonists to understand the basic mechanisms to inhibit the BMP signaling in metastatic cancer leading to bone pain and pathologic fractures. We investigated the influence of DAN and Noggin, BMP antagonists, on BMP-induced bone formation. The accumulated knowledge will aid in the design of new drugs to reduce and treat pathologic fractures and improve quality of life for patients with prostate cancer.