Abstract

Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in men, and research to find more effective and less toxic drugs has become necessary. In the frame of our ongoing program on traditionally used Salvia species from the Mediterranean Area, here we report the biological activities of Salvia aurea, S. judaica and S. viscosa essential oils against human prostate cancer cells (DU-145). The cell viability was measured by 3(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) test and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release was used to quantify necrosis cell death. Genomic DNA, caspase-3 activity, expression of cleaved caspase-9, B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2 associated X (Bax) proteins were analyzed in order to study the apoptotic process. The role of reactive oxygen species in cell death was also investigated. We found that the three essential oils, containing caryophyllene oxide as a main constituent, are capable of reducing the growth of human prostate cancer cells, activating an apoptotic process and increasing reactive oxygen species generation. These results suggest it could be profitable to further investigate the effects of these essential oils for their possible use as anticancer agents in prostate cancer, alone or in combination with chemotherapy agents.

Details

Title
Involvement of Bax and Bcl-2 in Induction of Apoptosis by Essential Oils of Three Lebanese Salvia Species in Human Prostate Cancer Cells
Author
Russo, Alessandra 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Cardile, Venera 2 ; Graziano, Adriana C E 2 ; Avola, Rosanna 2 ; Bruno, Maurizio 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Rigano, Daniela 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Department of Drug Sciences, University of Catania, V.le A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy 
2  Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Physiology, University of Catania, Via S. Sofia, 89, 95123 Catania, Italy; [email protected] (V.C.); [email protected] (A.C.E.G.); [email protected] (R.A.) 
3  Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF), University of Palermo, V.le delle Scienze, Parco d’Orleans II, 90128 Palermo, Italy 
4  Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples Federico II, Via D. Montesano, 49, 80131 Naples, Italy; [email protected] 
First page
292
Publication year
2018
Publication date
2018
Publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
16616596
e-ISSN
14220067
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms19010292
ProQuest document ID
2109458046
Copyright
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.