BACKGROUND The aim of our study has to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of polyphenols and sterols extracted from the virgin argan oil on three human prostatic cell lines (DU145, LNCaP, and PC3). METHODS Cytotoxicity, anti-proliferative effects and nuclear morphological changes of cells were analyzed after treatment with sterols and polyphenols. The results were compared to 2-methoxyestr...

Androgen receptor (AR) expression in prostate cancer (CaP) cells varies due to the multiple changes including epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation and histone deacetylation. DNA methyltransferase and histone deacetylase inhibitors are promising for the treatment of CaP. The aim of our study was to analyze the 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (Aza‑dC) and sodium butyrate (NaB) effects on CaP c...

A leading cause of cancer chemotherapy failure is chemoresistance, which often involves multiple mechanisms. Chinese medicines (CM) usually contain multiple components which could potentially target many mechanisms simultaneously and may offer an advantage over single compounds that target one mechanism at a time. The purpose of this study was to investigate the chemosensitizing effect (CE) of ...

One of the major obstacles in curing prostate cancer is the development of drug resistance to docetaxel, which is the gold standard for the treatment of this disease. It is not only imperative to discover the molecular basis of resistance but also to find therapeutic agents that can disrupt the resistant pathways. Based on initial findings that docetaxel-resistant PC3-DR and DU145-DR prostate t...

MITOSTATIN, a novel putative tumor suppressor gene induced by decorin overexpression, is expressed in most normal human tissues but is markedly down-regulated in advanced stages of mammary and bladder carcinomas. Mitostatin negatively affects cell growth, induces cell death and regulates the expression and activation levels of Hsp27. In this study, we demonstrated that ectopic expression of Mit...

Androgen-insensitive DU145 and PC3 human prostate cancer cells express high levels of specificity protein (Sp) transcription factors Sp1, Sp3, and Sp4, and treatment of cells with methyl 2-cyano-3,11-dioxo-18β-olean-1,12-dien-30-oate (CDODA-Me) inhibited cell growth and downregulated Sp1, Sp3, and Sp4 expression. CDODA-Me (15 mg/kg/d) was a potent inhibitor of tumor growth in a mouse xenograft ...

Numerous data suggest that an increase of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in tumor mass can be the reason for failure of conventional therapies because of their resistance. CD44+/CD24- cells are a putative cancer stem cells subpopulation in prostate cancer. TRAIL (tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand) is an activator of apoptosis in tumor cells. However, some tumors are TRAIL-resist...

BACKGROUND Many prostate cancers demonstrate an increased expression of growth factor receptors such as vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) and platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) which have been correlated with increased resistance to radiotherapy and poor prognosis in other tumors. Therefore, response to radiation could potentially be improved by using inhibitors o...

Anvirzel is an extract of Nerium oleander currently undergoing Phase I clinical evaluation as a potential treatment for cancer. Two of the active components of Anvirzel are the cardiac glycosides oleandrin and oleandrigenin. Previous studies have demonstrated that, in vitro, cardiac glycosides may inhibit fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) export through membrane interaction with the Na,K-ATPas...

BACKGROUND Distant prostate cancers are commonly hormone refractory and exhibit increased growth no longer inhibited by androgen deprivation therapy. Understanding all molecular mechanisms contributing to uncontrolled growth is important to obtain effective treatment strategies for hormone refractory prostate cancers (HRPC). The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) affects a number of biological pro...