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Uncovering the Anti-Prostate Cancer Properties of Four Central California Weeds

CSEF · 2023 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology Third Award

Chen Eva · 12

Overview

Better therapeutics for prostate cancer are needed because over 34,000 American men are estimated to die of prostate cancer in 2022. Natural products have been a valuable source of anticancer agents (as 41% of new anticancer drugs approved by the FDA from 1981-2019 are natural products and their derivatives). I envisioned that weeds native to Central California possess diverse natural products with unique chemical scaffolds for prostate cancer, due to the harsh weather conditions in Central California. Previously, my preliminary WST-1 bioassay results indicate that twenty-one out of seventy-five crude extracts can suppress at least 50% cell proliferation against at least one of three prostate cancer cell lines at 50 µg/mL. The IC50 values for these twenty-one extracts have been assessed on PC-3, DU145, LNCaP, and 22Rv1 prostate cancer cell lines. Twelve extracts inhibit cell proliferation of all tested prostate cancer cell lines. Nine extracts selectively suppress androgen receptor-positive prostate cancer cell proliferation. The methanol/water extracts from Fleabane, Johnson grass, Yellow nutsedge, and Spotted spurge have the greatest potency in suppressing androgen receptor-positive prostate cancer cell proliferation. Running multiple PTLCs, I separated these extracts into fragments and utilize WST-1 bioassay to find the fragment that shows the best results. My preliminary WST-1 bioassay results indicate that Spotted Spurge(Fragment 5) was the most promising. After running a PTLC on Spotted Spurge(Fragment 5), the most promising subfractions were found through WST-1 bioassay. Subfractions 1,2,3,7 of Spotted Spurge(Fragment 5) were the most promising.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry S0507

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