Research On Prostate Cancer Discussed By Scientists At University Of Wisconsin

"Cellular senescence is a persistently growth-arrested phenotype in normal and transformed cells induced by noncytotoxic stress. Cytostasis as a method of cancer treatment has recently generated significant interest," researchers in the United States report.

"Research into the induction of cellular senescence as cancer therapy has been hindered by a lack of compounds that efficiently induce this response. The authors describe a semiautomated high-throughput method to identify library compounds that induce senescence using prostate cancer cells cultured in 96-well plates. Primary hits are identified by low cell numbers after 3 days in culture, measured by Hoechst 33342 fluorescence. A secondary visual assessment of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase staining and cellular morphology in the same wells distinguishes senescence from quiescence, apoptosis, and other false positives. This method was used to screen a 4160-compound library of known bioactive Compounds and natural products at a 10-mc M dose. Candidate Compounds were further selected based on persistent growth arrest after drug removal and increased expression of previously described senescence marker genes. Four lead compounds not previously associated with senescence were identified for further investigation," wrote J.A. Ewald and colleagues, University of Wisconsin.

The researchers concluded: "This is the first successful assay to identify novel agents from compound libraries based oil senescence induction in cancer cells. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening 2009:853-858)."

Ewald and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Biomolecular Screening (A High-Throughput Method to Identify Novel Senescence-Inducing Compounds. Journal of Biomolecular Screening, 2009;14(7):853-858).

For additional information, contact D.F. Jarrard, University of Wisconsin, Dept. of Urology, 600 Highland Avenue, K6-530, Madison, WI 53792, USA.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Biomolecular Screening is: Sage Publications Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA.

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