Structure-Function Analysis of Myopodin, a Biomarker for Invasice Prostate Cancer

This year, 1 in 6 men will develop prostate cancer and 4,400 men will die from it. Death results from prostate cancer when tumour invasion and metastasis lead to advanced prostate cancer. Myopodin, a protein that binds actin and shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm, may represent the first accurate prognosticator of invasive prostate cancer. Over 80% of invasive prostate cancer cases contain partial or complete deletion of the myopodin gene. Furthermore, loss of myopodin expression strongly correlates with a clinical relapse rate of 86%. The loss of myopodin expression in prostate cancer correlates with metastatic potency and over-expression of myopodin indicating that myopodin serves as a tumour suppressor. Preliminary results suggest the possibility that myopodin may be SUMOylated, a post-translational modification involved in nucleocytoplasmic shuttling. This project will focus on further analysis of myopodin post-translational modification, and the effects of altered subcellular localization on prostate cancer cell invasion and thereby further increase our understanding of the role of myopodin in invasive prostate cancer. This knowledge may contribute to the development of more accurate and beneficial diagnostic tools in the treatment of prostate cancer.