Jeremy Jones, Ph.D., wants to fight prostate cancer by giving men the hormone that feeds the disease.
Jones, who recently joined the Department of Molecular Pharmacology as an assistant professor, is adding a new perspective to City of Hope’s prostate cancer research efforts, boosting studies into an area that needs better answers.
 Jeremy Jones, left, discusses prostate cancer research with Miaoling He. (Photo by Darrin S. Joy) |
He focuses on the mechanisms behind the male hormones, or androgens, that drive most prostate cancers: testosterone and its close relative dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. These hormones interact with the androgen receptor, the protein most responsible for controlling the development of male features.
Harnessing the androgen receptor is critical to treating many prostate cancers.
Today, physicians often treat the disease by blocking the body’s production of testosterone and DHT or by hampering the hormones’ ability to bind to the androgen receptor. Called androgen deprivation therapy, the method can be effective for several years, but it also is extremely taxing for most men, causing severe fatigue, loss of libido and bone and muscle loss. In addition, nearly all prostate cancers eventually find a way to overcome the treatment and flourish again.
Jones is looking for new treatments that could avoid the side effects of androgen deprivation therapy, overcome therapy-resistant disease or both.
Much of his research focuses on two avenues: Looking for potential new drug targets in prostate cancer cells and searching for new molecules that can inhibit the androgen receptor in prostate cells but not in healthy tissue.
“A lot of men choose not to continue therapy because the side effects are so debilitating,” said Jones. “New drug targets or drugs that act only in prostate tissue would be a huge help.”
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded Jones a prestigious K99/R00 grant to advance this line of research. The grant is part of the NCI’s Pathway to Independence Award Program, which aims to help young researchers advance their careers and help them obtain larger grant awards sooner than normal.
In what may be his most provocative research approach, however, Jones suggests prostate cancer might be prevented by giving healthy men supplements of testosterone or DHT, the very hormones that feed prostate cancer cells. Jones believes this seemingly counterintuitive method could keep prostate tumor cells from arising in the first place.
As men age, their overall testosterone levels decline; however, testosterone levels in their prostate cells remain high, according to Jones.
“Prostate cells change and begin producing more testosterone to offset the body’s shortage,” he explained. This transformation might be linked to the development of diseases such as prostate cancer or benign prostatic hyperplasia, commonly called BPH. “This could explain why, despite declining hormone levels, nearly every male between the ages of 50 and 80 will develop BPH or prostate cancer,” he said.
Jones believes boosting testosterone and DHT levels in aging men might prevent their prostate cells from undergoing the transformation that causes them to overproduce the hormones and become diseased.
He aims to develop a laboratory model to study the effects and potential preventive power of testosterone and DHT supplements in healthy males.
Prior to joining City of Hope, Jones completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
