# Exploring enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) for targeting osteoblastic metastasis of prostate cancer

> **NIH NIH R21** · BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $430,496

## Abstract

Abstract
 Prostate cancer (PCa) remains as the most frequent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer
mortality among U.S. males that are mainly associated with metastatic diseases. Bone is the major site of distant
metastases of PCa. Although androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is effective for treating hormone naive PCa,
the onset of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) confers androgen resistant phenotypes,
which is the end stage of disease without cure. Thus, developing novel approaches for treating mCRPC is
urgently needed. It is well known the reciprocal interaction between PCa and bone microenvironment resulted in
unique osteoblastic reaction that further promotes PCa progression. Thus, we hypothesize that dual targeting
osteoblast and PCa cells should lead to a novel single agent as an effective targeted therapy for mCRPC.
Therefore, we propose to explore enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) for targeting osteoblastic mCRPC.
The proposed research is to develop the EISA substrates that can undergo EISA by the actions of alkaline
phosphatase (ALPL) and acid phosphatase (ACPP) and to examine their efficacy in cell assays. This
research program will focus on three specific aims: Aim 1, design and synthesis of EISA substrates of ALPL and
ACPP; Aim 2, characterizing the EISA substrates of ALPL and ACPP and determining their activities in the co-
culture of osteoblast and mCRPC cells; and Aim 3, examining the efficacy of the EISA substrates for inhibiting
mCRPC in clinically relevant animal models. The rigor of prior research is that (i) it is well documented that
overexpression of ALPL is the feature of osteoblastic metastases and overexpression of ACPP is the
feature of PCa and (ii) our preliminary results show that EISA catalyzed by ALPL selectively inhibits
osteoblast model cells and EISA catalyzed by ACPP selectively inhibit CRPC cells. The success of the
proposed studies will contribute to the development of new molecular targeting agents based on ALPL and ACPP
overexpressed during the process of metastasis of mCRPC in bone, which may ultimately lead to breakthrough
in treating mCRPC.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10044030
- **Project number:** 1R21CA252364-01
- **Recipient organization:** BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jer-Tsong Hsieh
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $430,496
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10044030

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10044030, Exploring enzyme-instructed self-assembly (EISA) for targeting osteoblastic metastasis of prostate cancer (1R21CA252364-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10044030. Licensed CC0.

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