Skip to Content
Merck
  • Natural compound Alternol induces oxidative stress-dependent apoptotic cell death preferentially in prostate cancer cells.

Natural compound Alternol induces oxidative stress-dependent apoptotic cell death preferentially in prostate cancer cells.

Molecular cancer therapeutics (2014-04-02)
Yuzhe Tang, Ruibao Chen, Yan Huang, Guodong Li, Yiling Huang, Jiepeng Chen, Lili Duan, Bao-Ting Zhu, J Brantley Thrasher, Xu Zhang, Benyi Li
ABSTRACT

Prostate cancers at the late stage of castration resistance are not responding well to most of current therapies available in clinic, reflecting a desperate need of novel treatment for this life-threatening disease. In this study, we evaluated the anticancer effect of a recently isolated natural compound, Alternol, in multiple prostate cancer cell lines with the properties of advanced prostate cancers in comparison to prostate-derived nonmalignant cells. As assessed by trypan blue exclusion assay, significant cell death was observed in all prostate cancer cell lines except DU145 but not in nonmalignant (RWPE-1 and BPH1) cells. Further analyses revealed that Alternol-induced cell death was an apoptotic response in a dose- and time-dependent manner, as evidenced by the appearance of apoptosis hallmarks such as caspase-3 processing and PARP cleavage. Interestingly, Alternol-induced cell death was completely abolished by reactive oxygen species scavengers N-acetylcysteine and dihydrolipoic acid. We also demonstrated that the proapoptotic Bax protein was activated after Alternol treatment and was critical for Alternol-induced apoptosis. Animal xenograft experiments in nude mice showed that Alternol treatment largely suppressed tumor growth of PC-3 xenografts but not Bax-null DU-145 xenografts in vivo. These data suggest that Alternol might serve as a novel anticancer agent for patients with late-stage prostate cancer.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Irinotecan hydrochloride, topoisomerase inhibitor
USP
Alpha Lipoic Acid, United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Reference Standard
Thioctic acid containing impurity B, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Thioctic acid, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Thioctic acid for system suitability, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Sigma-Aldrich
(±)-α-Lipoic acid, ≥98.0%
Sigma-Aldrich
(±)-α-Lipoic acid, suitable for cell culture, BioReagent, ≥99%
Sigma-Aldrich
E-64, protease inhibitor
Sigma-Aldrich
Z-Leu-Leu-Leu-al, ≥90% (HPLC)
Sigma-Aldrich
(±)-α-Lipoic acid, synthetic, ≥99% (titration), powder
Sigma-Aldrich
JC-1, solid