Abstract 4237: Inhibition of prostate cancer associated kinases by Tillandsia recurvata: A Jamaican medicinal plant

Abstract

Abstract Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in men of all ages. The three conventional treatment options include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. In many cases, these treatments are used in combination. Chemotherapy is however the most widely used tool in prostate cancer treatment especially where the cancer has metastasized or spread to other organs of the body. Increased resistance to current chemotherapies by prostate cancer calls for an urgent need to discover and develop new therapeutics that can slow the growth of cancer cells while having lesser side effects on the patients. The development of target therapies for the treatment of human cancers is revolutionizing the concept of cancer treatment today. This type of therapeutic approach is directed to the inhibition of molecular targets that play a pivotal role in tumor progression such as the kinases. It is only in recent years that kinases have emerged as major targets for therapeutics, particularly for cancer related therapies. Relatively few kinase inhibitors have been identified to date and efforts are being made to discover new small molecules kinase inhibitors. The Island of Jamaica is known for its rich biodiversity and abundance of medicinal plants used in folk medicines. In an effort to discover new anticancer drugs from natural products several Jamaican medicinal plants were screened for anticancer activity. The Jamaican Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata L.) was one such plant that exhibited potent activity against the PC-3 prostate cancer cell line in vitro (IC50 = 2.4µg/ml) and was selected for further studies. The crude extract of Ball Moss was screened for interaction with 451 kinases. The crude Ball Moss extract showed potent kinase inhibitory activity against 5 kinases (kd = 8-14 µg/ml), of which 4 are implicated in prostate cancer growth and proliferation. The four kinases are; CSNK2A2, DRAK1, GAK and MEK5. The above results validate the folk use of this medicinal plant as well as make it a good candidate for development into a prostate cancer treatment or for the discovery of the bioactive molecules in the plant. Studies are currently underway to confirm the ability of Ball Moss to halt the growth of prostate tumors in mice as well as measure the inhibitory effects of the crude extract on the 4 related kinases in vivo. The isolation and characterization of the kinase inhibitors in ball moss is also in progress. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4237. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4237