Apoptosis induced in Human Prostate Cancer and Mechanism of Emodin Isolated from Marine Fungus, Microsporum sp.

Abstract

Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth, invasion and metastasis. While cancer can affect people of all ages and caused about 13% of all human deaths worldwide. It is considered that one of the most dangerous enemies of human being. Among the characteristics of cancer, metastasis is the major cause of cancer mortality. Recently, the relationship between apoptosis and cancer has been emphasized and the induction of apoptosis is recognized as one of the key mechanisms of anti-cancer agents. Marine-derived fungi are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive anticancer agents. In the present study, a marine-derived fungus, Microsporum sp. was cultured and an anthraquinone derivative, physcion and emodin were isolated from the culture broth extract . They have shown cytotoxic effect on human prostate carcinoma PC3 cells. And its apoptosis induction in PC3 cells was investigated by the expressions of p53, p21, Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase 9, and Caspase 3 proteins. The results suggest that physcion could be a potential candidate in the field of anticancer drug discovery against human prostate cancer.