While most prostate malignancies are adenocarcinomas, some tumors undergo cellular reprogramming to a more lethal subset termed neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). The frequency of NEPC is increasing, and there are currently no effective treatments for NEPC. This emphasizes the need to identify targetable factors in NEPC that can help improve patient outcomes. Lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) is a histone demethylase that promotes stemness and cell survival in prostate cancer.
However, its role in NEPC is not clearly understood. Researchers examined tissues from patients with metastatic prostate cancer and found that LSD1 was more highly expressed in NEPC than in adenocarcinoma tumors. Further, LSD1's importance for the survival of these aggressive cells was confirmed when LSD1 suppression with RNAi or allosteric LSD1 inhibitors reduced NEPC cell survival. LSD1 inhibition…
