Abstact

Carcinoma of the prostate is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. The current pharmacological treatment of choice for progressive androgen-dependent prostate cancer is the nonsteroidal antiandrogen, bicalutamide, either as monotherapy or with adjuvant castration or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone superagonists to block the synthesis of endogenous testosterone. To date, no nonsteroidal or antagonist-bound androgen receptor (AR) structure is available. We solved the x-ray crystal structure of the mutant W741L AR ligand-binding domain bound to R-bicalutamide at 1.8-A resolution. This mutation confers agonist activity to bicalutamide and is likely involved in bicalutamide withdrawal syndrome. The three-dimensional structure demonstrates that the B ring of R-bicalutamide in the W741L mutant is accommodated at the location of the indole ring of Trp-741 in the WT AR bound to dihydrotestosterone. Knowledge of the binding mechanism for R-bicalutamide will provide molecular rationale for the development of new antiandrogens and selective AR modulators.