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Accumulating evidence during the last decades revealed that androgen can exert membrane initiated actions that involve signaling via specific kinases and the modulation of significant cellular processes, important for prostate cancer cell growth and metastasis. Results of the present work clearly show that androgens can specifically act at the membrane level via the GPCR oxoeicosanoid receptor 1 (OXER1) in prostate cancer cells. In fact, OXER1 expression parallels that of membrane androgen binding in prostate cancer cell lines and tumor specimens, while in silico docking simulation of OXER1 showed that testosterone could bind to OXER1 within the same grove as 5-OxoETE, the natural ligand of OXER1. Interestingly, testosterone antagonizes the effects of 5-oxoETE on specific signaling pathways and rapid effects such as actin cytoskeleton reorganization that ultimately can modulate cell migration and metastasis. These findings verify that membrane-acting androgens exert specific effects through an antagonistic interaction with OXER1. Additionally, this interaction between androgen and OXER1, which is an arachidonic acid metabolite receptor expressed in prostate cancer, provides a novel link between steroid and lipid actions and renders OXER1 as new player in the disease. These findings should be taken into account in the design of novel therapeutic approaches in prostate cancer.

Eicosanoids are lipid mediators derived from the metabolism of arachidonic acid. These agents are locally released and activate different cell membrane receptors, and the latter are part of the G-protein coupled receptor family. While activation of eicosanoid receptors is associated with a wide variety of actions, there is limited information concerning the structural components of the eicosanoid receptors. To date, our understanding of the eicosanoid ligand-receptor binding interaction has been based on the rhodopsin template model. While receptors in the same family do share a common architecture, there are amino acid residues in the membrane binding pocket that play a key role in ligand recognition as well as the diversity observed in the cellular signaling. In order to understand the eicosanoid receptor binding interaction, attention must be focused on both the nature of the endogenous ligands as well as the template G-protein model that has been proposed. The data derived from chemical alterations in the endogenous ligands, together with the mutagenesis studies involving the structural modifications of the eicosanoid receptors, have suggested a working model of the eicosanoid receptors. However, the data also document various nuances in the receptor structure associated with ligand binding as well as a number of differences that will require further investigation.