Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Mar:88:104669.
doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104669. Epub 2020 Dec 7.

Covid-19 pathogenesis in prostatic cancer and TMPRSS2-ERG regulatory genetic pathway

Afsoon Afshari  1 , Sahar Janfeshan  2 , Ramin Yaghobi  1 , Jamshid Roozbeh  3 , Negar Azarpira  4
Affiliations
Review

Covid-19 pathogenesis in prostatic cancer and TMPRSS2-ERG regulatory genetic pathway

Afsoon Afshari et al. Infect Genet Evol. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Members of Coronaviridae family have been the source of respiratory illnesses. The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 that produced a severe lung disease in afflicted patients in China and other countries was the reason for the incredible attention paid toward this viral infection. It is known that SARS-CoV-2 is dependent on TMPRSS2 activity for entrance and subsequent infection of the host cells and TMPRSS2 is a host cell molecule that is important for the spread of viruses such as coronaviruses. Different factors can increase the risk of prostate cancer, including older age, a family history of the disease. Androgen receptor (AR) initiates a transcriptional cascade which plays a serious role in both normal and malignant prostate tissues. TMPRSS2 protein is highly expressed in prostate secretory epithelial cells, and its expression is dependent on androgen signals. One of the molecular signs of prostate cancer is TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion. In TMPRSS2-ERG-positive prostate cancers different patterns of changed gene expression can be detected. The possible molecular relation between fusion positive prostate cancer patients and the increased risk of lethal respiratory viral infections especially SARS-CoV-2 can candidate TMPRSS2 as an attractive drug target. The studies show that some molecules such as nicotinamide, PARP1, ETS and IL-1R can be studied deeper in order to control SARS-CoV-2 infection especially in prostate cancer patients. This review attempts to investigate the possible relation between the gene expression pattern that is produced through TMPRSS2-ERG fusion positive prostate cancer and the possible influence of these fluctuations on the pathogenesis and development of viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: Cancer; Fusion; Prostate; SARS-CoV-2; TMPRSS2-ERG.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The functional pathway of androgens and its receptor.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The S protein of coronaviruses entrance to target cells.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The possible relation of prostate cancer to viral pathogenesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Afar D.E., Vivanco I., Hubert R.S., Kuo J., Chen E., Saffran D.C., Raitano A.B., Jakobovits A. Catalytic Cleavage of the Androgen-regulated TMPRSS2 Protease Results in Its Secretion by Prostate and Prostate Cancer Epithelia - PubMed [Internet] 2001. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11245484/ [cited 8 Jun 2020]. Available: - PubMed
    1. Akakura K., Bruchovsky N., Goldenberg S.L., Rennie P.S., Buckley A.R., Sullivan L.D. Effects of intermittent androgen suppression on androgen-dependent tumors. Apoptosis and serum prostate-specific antigen. Cancer. 1993:71. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19930501)71:9<2782::AID-CNCR2820710916>3.0.CO;2-Z. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bao W., Fu H., Xie Q., Wang L., Zhang R., Guo Z., et al. HER2 interacts with CD44 to up-regulate CXCR4 via epigenetic silencing of microRNA-139 in gastric cancer cells. Gastroenterology. 2011;141:2076–2087. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2011.08.050. e6. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bastus N.C., Boyd L.K., Mao X., Stankiewicz E., Kudahetti S.C., Oliver R.T.D., et al. Androgen-induced TMPRSS2:ERG fusion in nonmalignant prostate epithelial cells. Cancer Res. 2010;70:9544–9548. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-1638. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Becker-Santos Daiana D., Guo Yubin, Ghaffari Mazyar, Vickers Elaine D., Lehman Melanie, Altamirano-Dimas Manuel, Oloumi Arusha, Furukawa Junya, Sharma Manju, Wang Yuzhuo, Dedhar Shoukat, Cox Michael E. Integrin-linked Kinase as a Target for ERG-mediated Invasive Properties in Prostate Cancer Models. - Abstract - Europe PMC [Internet] 2012. https://europepmc.org/article/med/23027626 [cited 18 Jun 2020]. Available: - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

-