title: Pro-apoptotic effect of aurothiomalate in prostate cancer cells.
abstract: It has been recently demonstrated that small gold compounds could have a potential anti-tumoral activity. Here, we report that aurothiomalate (ATM), a gold compound already used in clinical therapy for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, has a pro-apoptotic effect in aggressive prostate cancer (PC3U) cells. In contrast, treatment of human primary epithelial prostate cells (PrEC) with ATM did not cause apoptosis. We demonstrated that ATM is able to disrupt the PKCiota-Par6 complex in PC3U cells and that this disruption leads to the activation of ERK in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, we also showed that ERK acts upstream of the activation of caspase 3, leading to apoptosis. ATM treatment also causes activation of p38 and JNK MAP kinases. Moreover we could link ATM treatment to activation of the mitochondrial or so called intrinsic pathway, as we observed release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytoplasm, suggesting that the mitochondrial pathway is involved in the pro-apoptotic effect mediated by ATM. Taken together our data suggest that ATM could be a new promising drug for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trani
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sorrentino
authors.forename: Christer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Busch
authors.forename: Marene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landström
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017209:Apoptosis; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000378:metabolism; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000378:metabolism; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D006052:Gold Sodium Thiomalate / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D048051:p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D006052:Gold Sodium Thiomalate; D045304:Cytochromes c; D048049:Extracellular Signal-Regulated MAP Kinases; D048051:p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases; D053148:Caspase 3