TY - JOUR AB - Glycyrrhetinic acid is an active triterpenoid metabolite of glycyrrhizin abundantly present in licorice roots. Glycyrrhetinic acid exists as α and β stereo-isomeric forms. Both stereo-isomeric forms are known to have anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. However, the effects and anticancer mechanism of α glycyrrhetinic acid in prostate cancer cells has not yet been evaluated. Therefore, we investigated the growth inhibition, induction of apoptosis and the anticancer mechanisms of 18α-glycyrrhetinic acid (AGA), on the androgen-independent metastatic prostate cancer cell line DU-145. Our results showed that AGA inhibited proliferation and growth of these cells by inducing apoptosis as determined by Annexin V and flow cytometry analyses. Our studies also showed that HUVEC tube formation was drastically reduced when cultured in conditioned medium of AGA-treated DU-145 cells. In addition, AGA treatment prevented the invasion of DU-145 prostate cancer cells on matrigel coated transwells via down-regulation of NF-κB (p65), VEGF and MMP-9 expression. Furthermore, AGA treatment also down-regulated the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine/growth factor genes HMGB1, IL-6 and IL-8 in DU-145 cells. Interestingly, AGA simultaneously upregulated the expression of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gene-1 (NAG-1) in DU-145 cells suggesting its anti-inflammatory activity on prostate cancer cells. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that AGA may be a promising anticancer agent that merits further investigation for the chemoprevention and treatment of prostate cancer. AD - Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Rockford, IL 61107, USA null Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Illinois, College of Medicine, 1601 Parkview Ave., Rockford, IL 61107, USA AU - Shetty,Aditya ,V. AU - Thirugnanam,Sivasakthivel AU - Dakshinamoorthy,Gajalakshmi AU - Samykutty,Abhilash AU - Zheng,Guoxing AU - Chen,Aoshuang AU - Bosland,Maarten ,C. AU - Kajdacsy-Balla,André AU - Gnanasekar,Munirathinam DA - 2011/09/01 DO - 10.3892/ijo.2011.1061 EP - 640 IS - 3 JO - Int J Oncol KW - 18α-glycyrrhetinic acid DU145 inflammation invasion and prostate cancer PY - 2011 SN - 1019-6439 1791-2423 SP - 635 ST - 18α-glycyrrhetinic acid targets prostate cancer cells by down-regulating inflammation-related genes T2 - International Journal of Oncology TI - 18α-glycyrrhetinic acid targets prostate cancer cells by down-regulating inflammation-related genes UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/ijo.2011.1061 VL - 39 ER -