Abstract

Background Prostate cancer (Pca) is a heterogeneous disease, and current treatments are not based on molecular stratification. Poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have recently been found to be remarkably toxic to cells with defects in homologous recombination, particularly cells with BRCA-mutated backgrounds. Therefore, this preliminary study was designed to evaluate whether PTEN expression status could have an impact on the sensitivity of invasive Pca cells to the PARP inhibitor, AZD2461. Methods MTT viability test, Annexin V‐FITC/propidium iodide double staining, and caspase3 activity assay were used to evaluate the apoptosis and relative expression of PTEN and VEGF in PC-3 and DU145 cell lines using real-time PCR. Results MTT results showed that the inhibitory effects of AZD2461 were higher in PC-3 than DU145 cells (with IC50 of 36.48 and 59.03 µM at 48 hours of treatment, respectively). Flow cytometric analysis also showed the same results. When exposed to 40 µM of AZD2461, PC-3 (38.8%) and DU145 (28%) cells underwent apoptosis (p < 0.05). Treatment of cells by AZD2461 also caused a significant increase in apoptosis through caspase3 activation in both cell lines. VEGF mRNA levels in PC-3 cells significantly decreased compared to adjusted untreated cells (p < 0.05) in all measured times while displaying different alteration patterns in DU145 cells (p < 0.05). Conclusion AZD2461 suppresses the growth of prostate tumor cells since AZD2461 monotherapy could prove to be efficacious, especially against cells not expressing PTEN besides activating the possible apoptosis-independent cell death pathways.