UC Davis

As the most common cancer in men, prostate cancer is molecularly heterogeneous. Contributing to this heterogeneity are the poorly understood metabolic adaptations of the two main types of prostate cancer, i.e., adenocarcinoma and small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SCNC), the latter being more aggressive and lethal. Using transcriptomics, untargeted metabolomics and lipidomics profiling on LASCPC-01 (prostate SCNC) and LNCAP (prostate adenocarcinoma) cell lines, we found significant differences in the cellular phenotypes of the two cell lines. Gene set enrichment analysis on the transcriptomics data showed 62 gene sets were upregulated in LASCPC-01, while 112 gene sets were upregulated in LNCAP. ChemRICH analysis on metabolomics and lipidomics data revealed a total of 25 metabolite clusters were significantly different. LASCPC-01 exhibited a higher glycolytic activity and lower levels of triglycerides, while the LNCAP cell line showed increases in one-carbon metabolism as an exit route of glycolytic intermediates and a decrease in carnitine, a mitochondrial lipid transporter. Our findings pinpoint differences in prostate neuroendocrine carcinoma versus prostate adenocarcinoma that could lead to new therapeutic targets in each type.