Potential of piperine in modulation of voltage-gated K+ current and its influences on cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human prostate cancer cells

Y. Ba, A. Malhotra

Department of Tumor Radiotherapy, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China. bayanhuahua@sina.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: Piperine is an attractive therapeutic alkaloid from black pepper that exhibits a broad spectrum of pharmacological properties over various pathological disorders including cancer. Voltage-gated K+ channels (KV) play an important role in regulating cancer cell proliferation and are considered as potential targets for the treatment of cancer. However, there is a paucity of information with regard to the implication of piperine in KV associated anticancer activities on human prostate cancer cells LNCaP and PC-3 cells. Therefore, the primary objective of the present study was to elucidate the anticancer action of piperine that might be mediated via voltage-gated K+ current (IK) blockade.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Whole-cell patch clamp was used to record the modulatory effects of piperine on IK expressed in LNCaP and PC-3 cells. Moreover, the anticancer activity of piperine was evaluated by MTT assay, flow cytometry and live/dead assay.

RESULTS: Piperine significantly inhibited IK in a dose-dependent manner with an effective IC50 dose 39.91 µM in LNCaP and 49.45 µM in PC-3 cells. Also, piperine induced a positive shift in the relative activation curve in both cells. Blockade of IK by piperine exerted G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest that led to inhibition of cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner.

CONCLUSIONS: We showed that the anticancer effects of piperine are directly correlated with the blockade of IK in LNCaP and PC-3 cells. The study also confirmed that IK inhibition by piperine might be responsible for its anticancer activities in prostate cancer cells.

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