A novel anticancer agent icaritin inhibited proinflammatory cytokines in TRAMP mice.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate whether icaritin (ICT) would inhibit serum proinflammatory cytokines and postpone prostate cancer (PCa) development and progression in both normal diet and high-fat diet (HFD) transgenic adenocarcinoma mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice.


METHODS
TRAMP mice were randomly divided into four groups: normal diet with/without ICT group and HFD with/without ICT group. Each TRAMP mouse received intraperitoneal injection of ICT solution at the dose of 30 mg/kg 5 times per week.


RESULTS
ICT treatment could significantly increase the survival when compared with those in normal diet group (P = 0.015, log-rank test) and HFD group (P = 0.009, log-rank test). Proinflammatory cytokine levels, including IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, were decreased more or less in ICT-treated TRAMP mice. Moreover, significant higher inflammation scores were detected in normal diet group and HFD group compared with their relevant ICT treatment groups (P = 0.026 and P = 0.006, respectively). Meanwhile, the incidences of well-differentiated tumor tissue in two ICT treatment groups (39.13 and 31.82 %) were moderately higher than control groups (29.41 and 20.00 %, respectively), though no significant difference was observed.


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, our findings indicate that ICT could inhibit the development and progression of PCa in TRAMP mice via inhibiting proinflammatory cytokines.
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China.
Jimeng
J
Hu
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China.
Tian
T
Yang
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China.
Hua
H
Xu
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China.
Mengbo
M
Hu
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China.
Hui
H
Wen
Department of Urology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 WuLuMuQi Middle Road, Shanghai, 200040, People's Republic of China. haowenj73@126.com.
Haowen
H
Jiang
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000145:classification; D059305:Diet, High-Fat; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D016207:Cytokines; D005419:Flavonoids; C499403:icaritin
High-fat diet; Icaritin; Proinflammatory cytokines; Prostate cancer; TRAMP