26 7 Endocrine-Related S He et al. 27-Hydroxycholesterol 26:7 659–675 Cancer sustains ovarian cancer RESEARCH Host CYP27A1 expression is essential for ovarian cancer progression Sisi He1, Liqian Ma1, Amy E Baek1, Anna Vardanyan1, Varsha Vembar1, Joy J Chen1, Adam T Nelson1, Joanna E Burdette2,5 and Erik R Nelson1,3,4,5,6 1Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA 2Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA 3Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA 4Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA 5University of Illinois Cancer Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA 6Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Anticancer Discovery from Pets to People Theme, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA Correspondence should be addressed to E R Nelson:
[email protected] Abstract There is an urgent need for more effective strategies to treat ovarian cancer. Elevated Key Words cholesterol levels are associated with a decreased progression-free survival time (PFS) f cholesterol while statins are protective. 27-Hydroxycholesterol (27HC), a primary metabolite of f ovarian cancer cholesterol, has been shown to modulate the activities of the estrogen receptors (ERs) f 27-hydroxycholesterol and liver x receptors (LXRs) providing a potential mechanistic link between cholesterol f tumor microenvironment and ovarian cancer progression. We found that high expression of CYP27A1, the enzyme f myeloid-derived suppressor responsible for the synthesis of 27HC, was associated with decreased PFS, while high cells expression of CYP7B1, responsible for 27HC catabolism, was associated with increased PFS.