Metabolic medications modify prostate cancer progression through exosome reprogramming

Among prostate cancer patients, co-morbid Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is associated with faster progression to biochemical recurrence and increased risk of mortality. Previous work from our lab provides evidence that exosomes purified from media of insulin resistant adipocytes or T2D patient plasma likely drives these outcomes by delivering miRNAs that exacerbate tumor aggressiveness in several breast and prostate cancer models. Here, we build on our previous findings to investigate whether treatment with metabolic medications attenuates the tumor promoting effects of exosomes. We found that human DU145 cells, a model for prostate cancer, treated with plasma exosomes from T2D patients, shows patterns in global gene transcription that resolve by patient treatment with metformin. To test the effects of metformin experimentally, we used a murine model of insulin resistance (IR). Treating DU145 cells with miRNAs purified from the plasma exosomes of IR mice, we found that cells transfected with miRNAs from the metformin-treated IR group displayed significantly less migration than cells transfected with miRNAs from the unmedicated IR group. We suggest that metformin may partially reverse effects of T2D to exacerbate tumor aggressiveness by modifying the miRNA payload of plasma exosomes.