Synthetic, non-natural analogs of ceramide elevate cellular ceramide, inducing apoptotic death to prostate cancer cells and eradicating tumors in mice.
The anticancer effects of synthetic, non-natural analogs of ceramide were tested using human TSU-Pr1 prostate cancer cells in-vitro as well as in-vivo, following their effects on tumors development in mice. When incubated with the cultured cancer cells, the analogs elevated cellular ceramide and induced a cytotoxicity and death by apoptosis. When a ceramide analog was injected intradermally or intraperitoneally into BALB/c-Nude or NOD-SCID mice bearing a human prostate tumor, a considerable regression of the tumor was observed. The synthetic ceramide analogs should thus be further investigated as potential anticancer drugs.
Qin
Jing Dong
JD
Department of Biochemistry, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
Weiss
Lola
L
Slavin
Shimon
S
Gatt
Shimon
S
Dagan
Arie
A
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002518:Ceramides / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D016513:Mice, SCID; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
D002518:Ceramides