The Effects of Rutaecarpine on Metastatic Prostate Cancer Cells

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer with an increased incidence in the world is one of the public health-threatening malignancy. Metastatic prostate cancer is an important cause of death in men despite of the combined use of more than one chemotherapeutic drug as well as radiotherapy and supportive treatments. Therefore, there is a need to develop novel treatment strategies in metastatic prostate cancer patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential therapeutic effects of Rutaecarpine (RUT) on metastatic prostate cancer cells.
METHODS: RUT induced cytotoxicity and apoptotic cell death were evaluated by WST-1, Annexin V, AO staining and ELISA assays in PC-3 human metastatic prostate cancer cell line.
RESULTS: The viability percentage of PC-3 cells after exposing to different concentrations of RUT treatment was significantly decreased in a time and dose dependent manner and the most effective concentrations of RUT was determined as 20 and 40 μM for 48 hours (p<0.05). Annexin V and AO staining revealed that the early and late apoptosis rate significantly increased compared to the control group (p <0.05). Additionally, the caspase-3 levels significantly increased after RUT treatment in PC-3 cells in a dose dependent manner (p<0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In this study, RUT exhibited a cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on PC-3 cells and therefore RUT could be a potential new therapeutic agent for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer. However, the underlying mechanism of the apoptotic death caused by RUT in PC-3 cells should be further investigated through advanced analysis at molecular level.