Turkish Propolis Extract May Help Prevent Prostate Cancer

Effect of Turkish Propolis Extracts on Proteome of Prostate Cancer Cell Line
Proteome Science 2011, Published: 7 December 2011

Background

Propolis is a natural, resinous hive product that has several pharmacological activities. Its composition varies depending on the vegetation, climate, season and environmental conditions of the area from where it was collected. Surface enhanced laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) is a proteomic approach which has been used in cancer proteomics studies. Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men. It has shown that nutritional supplements rich in polyphenolic compounds such as propolis play a significant role in prostate cancer chemoprevention. The aim of this study is to evaluate if protein expression profile in PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines could be differentiated when incubated with dimethyl sulfoxide and water extracts of Turkish propolis.

Results

The antioxidant potentials of dimethyl sulfoxide and water extracts of propolis were found in correlation with the amount of total phenolic compounds of them. Dimethyl sulfoxide and water extracts of propolis of 20 ug/mL reduced the cell viability to 24.5% and 17.7 %, respectively. Statistically significant discriminatory peaks between control PC-3 cells and dimethyl sulfoxide extract of propolis-treated PC-3 cells were found to be the proteomic features at m/z 5143, 8703, 12661, 20184 and 32794, detected by CM10 ProteinChip, and the peak at m/z 3772, detected by Q10 ProteinChip. Between control PC-3 cells and water extract of propolis-treated PC-3 cells, statistically significant discriminatory peaks were found to be the proteomic features at m/z 15846, 16052 and 24658, detected by CM10 ProteinChip and the peaks at m/z 10348, 10899 and 11603, detected by Q10 ProteinChip.

Conclusions

It was concluded that dimethyl sulfoxide and water extracts of Turkish propolis may have anti-proliferative activity through differentiating protein expression profile in PC-3 prostate cancer cell lines along with their antioxidant capacity.