The goal of RAAR is to accrue and communicate information that facilitates the development of novel therapies to inhibit androgen receptor action in prostate cancer.
The androgen receptor is a ligand-activated transcription factor that is the main target for treatment of non-organ-confined prostate cancer. The efficacy of androgen deprivation therapy is hampered by substantial inter-patient flexibility in the steroidogenic pathways that lead to intracrine androgen production and by considerable variability in the regulation of the androgen receptor’s transcriptional output.
Steroidogenic enzymes that regulate androgen production and coregulators that modulate androgen receptor’s transactivation function can serve as targets for novel prostate cancer treatments. Members of both protein classes, however, are characterized by multiple transcript variants and isoforms, are subject to somatic mutations or single nucleotide polymorphisms, and display significantly different expression patterns among prostate cancers. Proper assessment of their therapeutic potential requires evaluation of extensive and diverse datasets that are dispersed over multiple databases, websites and literature reports. Accessing, mining and integrating these datasets are cumbersome, time-consuming and provide snapshots only of information stored in a respective resource.
RAAR was established as a web-based user-friendly searchable database to study androgen action in prostate cancer more efficiently. RAAR centralizes information on gene function, clinical relevance, and resources for the study of 55 genes that encode proteins involved in the biosynthesis, metabolism and transport of androgens and of 274 androgen receptor-associated coregulator genes. RAAR provides access to more than 20 well-curated and publicly available databases. For each gene included in RAAR, a hyperlink provides direct access to gene-specific entries in the respective database(s). Data in RAAR is organized in 3 levels. First, information pertaining to the regulation of the steroidogenic pathways that lead to production of androgens that activate the androgen receptor is included as a “pre-receptor level” database. Second, same information for coregulator genes that control transcription by androgen-activation androgen receptor is provided in a “post-receptor level” database. Finally, a third, “other resources” level provides access to databases for which hyperlinks to specific RAAR entries could not be established, and to additional resources that are useful to pursue the information provided in RAAR.
RAAR strives to be a resource that provides fast, reliable, and easy access to integrated information on key regulators of androgen action receptor in prostate cancer. We look forward to hearing from you. For suggestions regarding useful modifications, additions and updates please contact [email protected].