Targeting CREB inhibits radiation-induced neuroendocrine differentiation and increases radiation-induced cell death in prostate cancer cells

Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) is a process by which prostate cancer cells transdifferentiate into neuroendocrine-like (NE-like) cancer cells. Accumulated evidence suggests that NED is associated with disease progression and therapy resistance in prostate cancer patients. We previously reported that by mimicking a clinical radiotherapy protocol, fractionated ionizing radiation (FIR) induces NED in prostate cancer cells. Interestingly, FIR-induced NED constitutes two distinct phases: a radioresistance phase in which a fraction of cells selectively survive during the first two week irradiation, and a neuroendocrine differentiation phase in which surviving cells differentiate into NE-like cancer cells during the second two week irradiation. We have also observed increased activation of the transcription factor cAMP response element binding (CREB) protein during the course of FIR-induced NED. To determine whether targeting NED can be explored as a radiosensitization approach, we employed two CREB targeting strategies, CREB knockdown and overexpression of ACREB, a dominant-negative mutant of CREB, to target both phases. Our results showed that ACREB expression increased FIR-induced cell death and sensitized prostate cancer cells to radiation. Consistent with this, knockdown of CREB also inhibited FIR-induced NED and sensitized prostate cancer cells to radiation. Molecular analysis suggests that CREB targeting primarily increases radiation-induced pre-mitotic apoptosis. Taken together, our results suggest that targeting NED could be developed as a radiosensitization approach for prostate cancer radiotherapy.