Date of Award

2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

First Advisor

Dianzheng Zhang, PhD

Second Advisor

Ruth Borghaei, PhD

Third Advisor

Marina D’Angelo, PhD

Fourth Advisor

Marcus G Bell, PhD

Abstract

Recent studies find that pterostilbene (PTS) exhibits more favorable drug properties and similar chemopreventive effects to its structural analogue resveratrol (RSV). However, few studies describe the activity of PTS in prostate cancer (PCa). Here, we conducted cell count experiments to assess the effects of PTS on metastatic PCa cell viability and to compare the potency of PTS to RSV in this respect. We also performed experiments to assess the effects of PTS on the androgen receptor (AR) and AR-mediated events. We used qPCR to measure the mRNA levels of the androgenresponsive gene (ARG), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and Western blots to assess the expression and subcellular localization of the AR protein in LNCaP cells. We found that PTS inhibited cell viability more potently than RSV in androgen-dependent LNCaP and androgen-independent PC-3 cells. These inhibitory effects were time and dosedependent and suggest that PTS may provide chemopreventive effects at multiple stages of disease. PTS also inhibited androgen-induced PSA mRNA levels in LNCaP cells. However, this inhibitory effect could not be fully attributed to changes in the androgeninduced expression or nuclear translocation of AR protein. Therefore, further investigation is required to elucidate PTS’s effects on AR-mediated events and to assess the clinical applicability of PTS in PCa.

Download

Share

COinS