Chemo-Preventive Effect of 1-Piperoyl Piperidine (Piperine) is Mediated Through Intrinsic Signaling Mechanisms in Human Prostate Cancer Cells (Pc-3) In Vitro

Mathangi¹, Nalini D², Ponnulakshmi R³, Monisha Prasad⁴, Lakshmi Priya⁵, Selvaraj J⁶*, Prasannakumar M⁷, Naveen Chander K⁷

Piperine can be considered a potential phototherapeutic drug for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease and it is second deadliest malignancy in men and the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men. Current chemo-therapies are limited due to considerable side effects. Recently, many kinds of bioactive phytochemicals have contributed significantly to developing new therapies for chemo-resistant prostate cancer due to their structural diversity. Piperine, a natural alkaloid found in the fruit of black (Piper nigrum Linn) and long (Piper longum Linn), has shown antitumor activities toward various cancer cell lines. However, the antitumor effects of piperine on intrinsic and extrinsic signaling mechanisms in breast cancer have not been elucidated so far. The study aimed to assess the anticancer activity of piperine in human prostate cancer cells through intrinsic signaling pathways. Methodology: Prostate cancer (PC3) cells were treated with different concentrations of piperine (100 & 200µg/ml) to analyze Bcl-2, p53, casepase-3 and caspase-9 protein expression in PC-3 cells. Cell viability was done using MTT in order to find the optimal dose. Results: MTT assay exhibited that piperine showed cell death at the concentration of 100 and 200µg. It significantly decreased the mRNA and protein expression of anti-apoptotic proteins (Bcl-2 and p-Bcl-2) and increased the levels of p53, casepase-3 and 9 protein expression in both concentrations used. Conclusion: Our present findings show that piperine induces apoptosis in PC-3 cells by inhibiting the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins with a concomitant increase in the tumor suppressor proteins effectively. Hence, piperine can be considered as a potential phototherapeutic drug for the treatment of prostate cancer which may lead to clinical utility.

Key Words: Piperine, Prostate cancer, Intrinsic signaling, PC-3 cells

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