Dr. Dong interviewed for Science in the City Publication of the Week

A recent publication from Dr Xuesen Dong and team is featured as Science in the City's Publication of the Week. "RNA Splicing of the BHC80 Gene Contributes to Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer Progression" was published in European Urology.

The results in this publication provide insights on designing future therapeutic strategies to control neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC)  development and progression. Specifically, this study defines the molecular mechanism by which the RNA splicing factor SRRM4 modulates RNA splicing of the histone demethylase BHC80 to confer cancer cells growth advantages and promote NEPC progression. It links RNA splicing and epigenetic modification of histones that can trigger the immune responses of tumour cells to induce multiple tumour promoting cytokines. Having shown that the major downstream effector of SRRM4-BH80 axis involves MyD88 signalling, the publication provides proof-of-principle evidence that MyD88 inhibitors can suppress the growth of NEPC spheroids and xenografts.

This research was supported by the CIHR, Prostate Cancer Canada, the Terry Fox Research Institute and NIH Prostate Cancer SPORE.