Prostatic acid phosphatase is not a prostate specific target

: Quintero IB, Araujo CL, Pulkka AE, Wirkkala RS, Herrala AM, Eskelinen EL, Jokitalo E, Hellstrom PA, Tuominen HJ, Hirvikoski PP, Vihko PT

Publisher: AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH

: 2007

: Cancer Research

: CANCER RESEARCH

: CANCER RES

: 67

: 14

: 6549

: 6554

: 6

: 0008-5472

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-07-1651(external)

Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) is currently evaluated as a target for vaccine immunotherapy of prostate cancer. This is based on the previous knowledge about secretory PAP and its high prostatic expression. We describe a novel PAP spliced variant mRNA encoding a type I transmembrane (TM) protein with the extracellular NH2-terminal phosphatase activity and the COOH-terminal lysosomal targeting signal (Yxx Phi). TM-PAP is widely expressed in nonprostatic tissues like brain, kidney, liver, lung, muscle, placenta, salivary gland, spleen, thyroid, and thymus. TM-PAP is also expressed in fibroblast, Schwarm, and LNCaP cells, but not in PC-3 cells. In well-differentiated human prostate cancer tissue specimens, the expression of secretory PAP, but not TM-PAP, is significantly decreased. TM-PAP is localized in the plasma membrane-endosomal-lysosomal pathway and is colocalized with the lipid raft marker flotillin-1. No cytosolic PAP is detected. We conclude that the wide expression of TM-PAP in, for instance, neuronal and muscle tissues must be taken into account in the design of PAP-based immunotherapy approaches.