Larisa Nonn, PhD, Associate Director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination at the University of Illinois Cancer Center, is Principal Investigator on a $1.8 million National Cancer Institute R01 grant to investigate the higher risk of African American men to develop aggressive prostate cancer.
African American men have twice the risk of dying from prostate cancer, and they also are diagnosed at a younger age than white men. Increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer is associated with vitamin D deficiency, and African American men tend to be deficient in vitamin D because melanin absorbs UV radiation, which reduces vitamin D synthesis on the skin from the sun.
Mounting evidence from Nonn’s lab demonstrates that vitamin D deficiency alters the levels of androgens in the prostate, which may contribute to the prostate cancer disparity observed in African American men. Androgens are a known driver of aggressive prostate cancer, and findings from the Nonn lab support that vitamin D deficiency leads to elevated androgens in the prostate tissue of African American men. They also have identified megalin as an endocytic receptor expressed in the prostate and regulated by vitamin D as importing circulating testosterone.
Nonn will use the five-year grant to examine vitamin D deficiency and megalin in aggressive prostate cancer and the consequences of vitamin D deficiency on prostate hormone homeostasis in patient-derived models, patient specimens and mouse models. She is Professor of Pathology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago.