1. ¹Laboratorio de Andrología Celular y Molecular, PDFB, ICBM, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, P.O. Box 70005, Santiago de Chile, Chile
2. ²Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, 06080, Badajoz, Spain

Correspondence: Dr PM Fernandez-Salguero, E-mail: pmfersal@unex.es

Received 22 December 2006; Revised 26 March 2007; Accepted 26 March 2007; Published online 8 May 2007.

Abstract

Prostate cancer represents a major concern in human oncology and the phytoalexin resveratrol (RES) inhibits growth and proliferation of prostate cancer cells through the induction of apoptosis. In addition, previous data indicate that in oestrogen-responsive human breast cancer cells, RES induces apoptosis by inhibition of the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. Here, using androgen receptor (AR)-positive LNCaP and oestrogen receptor alpha (ER)-expressing PC-3 prostate tumour cells, we have analysed whether the antiproliferative activity of RES takes place by inhibition of the AR- or ER-dependent PI3K pathway. Although RES treatment (up to 150 M) decreased AR and ER protein levels, it did not affect AR and ER interaction with p85-PI3K. Immunoprecipitation and kinase assays showed that RES inhibited AR- and ER-dependent PI3K activities in LNCaP and PC-3, respectively. Consistently, lower PI3K activities correlated with decreased phosphorylation of downstream targets protein kinase B/AKT (PKB/AKT) and glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3). GSK-3 dephosphorylation could be responsible for the decreased cyclin D1 levels observed in both cell lines. Importantly, RES markedly decreased PKB/AKT phosphorylation in primary cultures from human prostate tumours, suggesting that the mechanism proposed here could take place in vivo. Thus, RES could have antitumoral activity in androgen-sensitive and androgen-non-sensitive human prostate tumours by inhibiting survival pathways such as that mediated by PI3K.