Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer and constitutes about 14.7% of total cancer cases. PCa is highly prevalent and more aggressive in African American (AA) men when compared to European-American (EA) men. PCa tends to be a highly heterogeneous malignancy with a complex biology that is not fully understood. We use metabolomics as a tool to understand the mechanisms behind PCa progression and disparities in its clinical outcome. A key enzyme in the purine metabolic pathway, Adenosine deaminase (ADA) was found upregulated in PCa. ADA was also associated with higher-grade PCa and poor disease-free survival. The inosine-to-adenosine ratio which is a surrogate for ADA activity was high in the urine of PCa patients and higher in AA PCa compared to EA PCa. To understand the significance of high ADA in PCa, we established ADA overexpression models and performed various in vitro and in vivo studies. Our studies have revealed that an acute increase in the expression of ADA during later stages of tumor development enhances in vivo growth in multiple pre-clinical models. Further analysis reveals that this tumor growth could be driven by the activation of mTOR signaling. Chronic ADA overexpression shows alterations in the cells adhesion machinery and a decrease in the adhesion potential of the cells to the extracellular matrix in vitro. Loss of cell-matrix interaction is critical for metastatic dissemination, suggestive of ADAs role in promoting metastasis. This is consistent with the association of higher ADA expression with higher-grade tumors and poor patient survival. Overall, our findings suggest that increased ADA expression may promote PCa progression, specifically tumor growth and metastatic dissemination.