Guggulsterone, a constituent of Indian Ayurvedic medicinal plant Commiphora mukul, causes apoptosis in cancer cells but the sequence of events leading to cell death is poorly understood. We now show that guggulsterone-induced cell death in human prostate cancer cells is caused by reactive oxygen intermediate (ROI)–dependent activation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK). Exposure of PC-3 and LNC...

Advanced prostate cancer is resistant to current therapeutic strategies. Bortezomib (Velcade; previously called PS-341) is a potent and specific inhibitor of the 26S proteasome that is currently in clinical trials for treatment of various malignancies, including prostate cancer. We investigated the effects of bortezomib on p53 in the LNCaP-Pro5 prostate cancer cell line. Bortezomib induced stro...

We investigated the importance of HMGN5, a nuclear protein that binds to nucleosomes, unfolds chromatin, and affects transcription, in the LNCaP prostate cancer cell line. We also examined the molecular mechanisms that promote apoptosis of LNCaP cells after infection with small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting HMGN5 (siRNA-HMGN5). The androgen-dependent LNCaP human prostate cancer cells were i...

Human prostatic acid phosphatase (PAcP) is a tissue-specific differ entiation antigen and is the major phosphotyrosyl (p-tyr) protein phos phatase in normal differentiated prostate epithelial cells. In prostate carcinomas, cellular PAcP has a low expression. We examined the expression of cellular PAcP activity and its correlation with cell growth that may lead us to understand the role of tyros...

Garlic constituent diallyl trisulfide (DATS) inhibits growth of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo by causing apoptosis, but the sequence of events leading to cell death is not fully understood. We now show that DATS treatment triggers mitochondria-mediated apoptosis program in human prostate cancer cells (LNCaP, LNCaP-C81, LNCaP-C4-2) irrespective of their androgen responsiveness. Interestingly...

Objective(s): Apoptotic effect of apoptin has been demonstrated in numerous studies. However, its tumor specificity has been questioned by some reports. The aim of this study was to confine the expression of apoptin in the prostate tumor cells by inducing its gene expression under the control of a chimeric enhancer composing of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and prostate-specific ant...

Experiments have been designed to investigate hormonal effects on the human prostatic carcinoma cell line LNCaP in the presence of complete foetal calf serum. At physiological concentrations (3.3 x 10M), several derivatives of 17a-methyl-testosterone led to a significant reduction of cell proliferation, inhibition of colony formation in soft agar, change of morphology, induction of a prostate s...

The anticancer agents from plant sources usually exert their action through a wide range of mechanisms. As part of our studies of plants for new anticancer agents with emphasis on Thymelaeaceae family, we examined the cytotoxicity and anti-tumor activity of the water extract of D. mucronata leaves against induced breast tumor in rats. In the current study, we were interested to obtain some know...

The goals of this work were to establish a reproducible and effective model of apoptosis in a cell line derived from advanced prostate cancer and to study the role of the caspase family of proteases in mediating apoptosis in this system. The study involved the use of the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Apoptosis was induced using the hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, ...

The goals of this work were to establish a reproducible and effective model of apoptosis in a cell line derived from advanced prostate cancer and to study the role of the caspase family of proteases in mediating apoptosis in this system. The study involved the use of the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Apoptosis was induced using the hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, ...