Our study implicates statin-induced SREBP2 activation as a PCa vulnerability that can be exploited for therapeutic purposes using clinically-approved agents.
They can act as either tumor suppressors or oncogenes, and changes in their levels are associated with tumor initiation, progression and metastasis. miR-33a is an intronic miRNA embedded within SREBF2 that has been reported to have tumor suppressive properties in some cancers but has not been examined in prostate cancer.
Studies performed <i>in vitro</i> revealed that treatment of prostate cancer cells with 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC), an enzymatic product of CYP27A1, reduced cellular cholesterol content in prostate cancer cell lines by inhibiting the activation of sterol regulatory-element binding protein 2 and downregulating low-density lipoprotein receptor expression.