A RNA splicing factor regulating splicing in androgen receptor promotes malignancy in prostate cancer

RNA splicing creates multiple transcript variants from one pre-mRNA via removing introns or some exons. Although an impediment in Androgen-Androgen receptor (AR) axis effectively represses the growth of prostate cancer, most of all cases eventually become castration-resistant prostate cancers (CRPCs). One of the mechanisms to obtain the abilities as CRPCs is AR-V7 expression, a constitutive active form of AR, generated as a result of RNA splicing. However, the molecular mechanisms to generate AR-V7 are still unknown. Here we identify that a RNA splicing factor that was identified by in silico screening of RNA binding factors related to the expression of AR-V7 from gene expression data of prostate cancer patients, promotes AR-V7 expression and malignancy in prostate cancer. Genome wide RNA splicing and photoactivatavle ribonucleoside-enhanced cross-linking immunoprecipitation(PAR-CLIP) analyses reveal that the factor control RNA splicing in many genes.