Targeting androgen receptor (AR) with a synthetic peptide increases apoptosis in triple negative breast cancer and AR-expressing prostate cancer cell lines

Abstract

Background: The androgen receptor (AR) has been studied as an approach to cancer therapy. Aims: We used human breast cancer-derived cells with high, low, and very low expression levels of AR, in addition to prostate cancer-derived LNCaP and DU-145 cells as a positive and negative controls to examine apoptosis caused by a synthetic peptide that targets ARs. Methods and Results: The peptide was produced to inhibit AR transactivation in breast cancer cell lines. We then measured cell viability, caspase-3 activity, and the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2. The findings indicated that the peptide (100–500 nM) in the presence of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) reduced cell growth in cells with high and low expression level of AR (p