Inhibitory Effects of Vaccinium arctostaphylos Extract on Prostate Cancer Cells

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, and its prevention is expected to increase in the future appreciably. Following the emergence of the new field of nutritional genetics and investigations about the effect of natural antioxidants on the hypermethylation of genes, this study was performed to measure the effect of Vaccinium arctostaphylos poly phenols and anthocyanins on PC-3 cell line as well as methylation and expression changes of GSTP1 gene.
In order to evaluate the survival potency of PC-3 cell line in a completely randomized design, MTT test was used and these cells were treated with different concentrations of Vaccinium arctostaphylos extract (4500, 2250, 1125, 562.5, 140.62, 70.31, 35.15, 17.57, 8.78, 4.39 µg/ml) for 24, 48 and 72 hours. Expression level of GSTP1 gene was analyzed by Q-RT-PCR method in 2500, 1250, 625, 312 and 156 µg/ml concentrations of Vaccinium.
Statistical results showed that Vaccinium arctostaphylos poly phenolic extract at 35-70 ppm concentration significantly reduced the survival rate of PC-3 cells. Moreover, compared to control cells, the expression level of GST gene significantly increased in PC-3 cells treated with 1250ppm extract.
Anthocyanin- polyphenolic extract from Vaccinium arctostaphylos can decrease the survival rate of cancerous cells and GST gene expression in human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. This may be explained by changes in cell carcinogenesis pathway or CpG demethylation process.