Prostate cancer is the most common
cancer in
men around the world. It is a complex and heterogeneous
disease in which
androgens and their receptors
play a crucial
role in the progression and development. The current
treatment for
prostate cancer is a combination of
surgery,
hormone therapy, radiation and
chemotherapy.
Therapeutic agents commonly used in the clinic include steroidal and non-steroidal anti-
androgens, such as
cyproterone acetate, bicalutamide and enzalutamide. These few agents have multiple
adverse effects and are not 100% effective. Several
plant compounds and mixtures, including
grape seed polyphenol extracts,
lycopene and
tomato preparations, soy
isoflavones, and
green tea extracts, have been shown to be effective against
prostate cancer cell growth. In vivo activity of some isolated compounds like
capsaicin and
curcumin was reported in
prostate cancer murine models. We prepared a
library of
plant extracts from traditional Mayan
medicine. These
plants were selected for their use in the contemporaneous Mayan
communities for the
treatment of different
diseases. The extracts were assessed in a phenotypic
screening using LNCaP
prostate cancer androgen sensitive
cell line, with a fixed
dose of 25 μg/mL. MTT assay identified seven out of ten
plants with interesting anti-neoplastic activity. Extracts from these
plants were subjected to a bioguided fractionation to study their major components. We identified three compounds with anti-neoplastic effects against LNCaP
cells, one of which shows selectivity for neoplastic compared to benign
cells(AU)