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Apoptosis‐Inducing Herbs for Prostate Cancer Prevention and Treatment
Author(s) -
Meng Jing,
Hawthorne Benjamin,
Lund Kaleb
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.lb488
Subject(s) - lncap , prostate cancer , viability assay , apoptosis , mtt assay , traditional medicine , medicine , prostate , cancer , flow cytometry , herb , pharmacology , cancer research , biology , immunology , medicinal herbs , biochemistry
Background Prostate cancer is the most common non‐skin cancer in men. The conventional treatment regimen for prostate cancer is chemical castration, which has adverse effects, and tumors often recur following treatment. Therefore, developing an alternative therapeutic plan for prostate cancer is very much desirable. The purpose of this study is to identify and validate natural herbs that can induce apoptosis of prostate cancer cells. Methods Saw Palmetto ( Serenoa repens , I), Sanqi ( Panax notoginsengI ), and Ban Lan Gen ( Isatis tinctoria ) are extracted in alcohol at various concentrations. We performed HPLC to characterize these herbs, and then treated LNCaP prostate cancer cells with the ethanol extracts of these herbs. The viability of the treated and control cells was assessed by MTT Cell Proliferation Assay and flow cytometry. Real‐Time Quantitative PCR was performed to determine the expression levels of apoptotic genes. Results We show here that Saw Palmetto ( Serenoa repens , I), Sanqi ( Panax notoginsengI ), and Ban Lan Gen ( Isatis tinctoria ) have the corresponding standard HPLC molecular profiles. They decreased the cell viability and enhanced apoptosis of LNCaP cells based upon MTT assay and flow cytometric analysis. Our preliminary quantitative RT‐PCR data also showed the elevated the expression levels of apoptotic genes in LNCaP cells treated by the herb extracts. Discussion The data show that cell proliferation of prostate cancer cells is reduced by treatment in vitro of the herbs studied. Despite the limitations of this in vitro study, these data provide exciting evidence for the anti‐cancer properties of these herbs and could contribute to new treatments for prostate cancer. Support or Funding Information This work was funded by Grant 4 and 13 from Bastyr University.