Growth Inhibitory and Pro-Apoptotic Effects of Ornamental Pomegranate Extracts in Du145 Human Prostate Cancer Cells.

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in the male. Epidemiological studies have associated increased cancer incidence with reduced consumption of fruit and vegetables. This study was aimed to investigate the influence of dwarf pomegranate extracts (peel, juice, and seeds oil) on the proliferation and apoptosis of human prostate androgen-independent cell line DU145.

In vitro anticancer activity of new gold(III) porphyrin complexes in colon cancer cells.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer diagnosed worldwide. The limitations of cisplatin-based chemotherapy have prompted intense interest among scientists to search for alternative metal-based anticancer medicines. Gold(III) complexes have been among the most widely investigated since they showed higher cytotoxicity than cisplatin and promising in vitro and in vivo anticancer activities in CRC but their clinical usefulness has been limited by their poor stability under physiological conditions.

Design and multi-step synthesis of chalcone-polyamine conjugates as potent antiproliferative agents.

The aim of this study is to synthesize chalcone-polyamine conjugates in order to enhance bioavailability and selectivity of chalcone core towards cancer cells, using polyamine-based vectors. 3-hydroxy-3',4,4',5'-tetramethoxychalcone (1) and 3',4,4',5'-tetramethoxychalcone (2) were selected as parent chalcones since they were found to be efficient anti-proliferative agents on various cancer cells. A series of ten chalcone-polyamine conjugates was obtained by reacting carboxychalcones with different polyamine tails.

Analysis of the in vitro and in vivo effects of photodynamic therapy on prostate cancer by using new photosensitizers, protoporphyrin IX-polyamine derivatives.

Background: Photodynamic therapy, using porphyrins as photosensitizers (PS), has been approved in treatment of several solid tumors. However, commonly used PS induce death but also resistance pathways in cancer cells and an alteration of surrounding normal tissues. Because polyamines (PA) are actively accumulated in cancer cells by the Polyamine Transport System (PTS), they may enable PS to specifically target cancer cells.

Resistance to ursolic acid-induced apoptosis through involvement of melanogenesis and COX-2/PGE2 pathways in human M4Beu melanoma cancer cells.

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer with a continuously growing incidence worldwide and is usually resistant to chemotherapy agents, which is due in part to a strong resistance to apoptosis. Previously, we had showed that B16-F0 murine melanoma cells undergoing apoptosis are able to delay their own death induced by ursolic acid (UA), a natural pentacyclic triterpenoid compound. We had demonstrated that tyrosinase and TRP-1 up-regulation in apoptotic cells and the subsequent production of melanin were implicated in an apoptosis resistance mechanism.

Development of curcumin-cyclodextrin/cellulose nanocrystals complexes: New anticancer drug delivery systems.

The synthesis of curcumin-cyclodextrin/cellulose nanocrystals (CNCx) nano complexes was performed. CNCx were functionalized by ionic association with cationic β-cyclodextrin (CD) and CD/CNCx complexes were used to encapsulate curcumin. Preliminary in vitro results showed that the resulting curcumin-CD/CNCx complexes exerted antiproliferative effect on colorectal and prostatic cancer cell lines, with IC50s lower than that of curcumin alone.