Research Interest

The physiological role of PSA in prostate tissue microenvironment, in prostate tumor growth and progression, and in prostate cancer metastasis is not known. Attenuation of PSA levels with age, disease progression, or during androgen deprivation therapy, however, removes this important regulator of angiogenesis, and by extension results in tumor progression. Re-introduction of human PSA into the prostate tissue microenvironment may suppress tumor angiogenesis through either the inhibition of expression of pro-angiogenic genes or induction of expression of anti-angiogenic genes, or via inhibition of signaling mechanisms associated with angiogenesis that are independent of gene transcription. Validation of an anti-angiogenic effect of PSA on the human tissue vasculature in a pre-clinical model of primary xenografts of human prostate and prostate cancer tissue will provide compelling evidence that PSA has therapeutic potential against prostate cancer.