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Updated: May 5, 2026
MicroRNA Detection in Prostate Tumors by Quantitative Real-time PCR qPCR
Published on: May 16, 2012
MiR-181a contributes to bufalin-induced apoptosis in PC-3 prostate cancer cells
Xiao-feng Zhai1, Fan-fu Fang, Qun Liu
1Department of Integrative Oncology, Changhai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. chenzhech@163.com.
Background:
Bufalin is a major active compound of cinobufacini, which comes from dried toad venom and has been used for treatments of various cancers in China for many years. A number of studies have demonstrated that bufalin can induce apoptosis in some cancers. However, effects and mechanism of bufalin on prostate cancer cells remain unknown.
Methods:
Apoptosis assay was measured by the annexin-V/PI flow cytometric assay. Western blot was used to measure Caspase-3 and Bcl-2. qRT-PCR was used to measure the relative expression of miR-181a.
Results:
Bufalin was found to induce the expression of miR-181a, a small non-coding RNA believed to induce apoptosis by repressing its target gene, BCL-2. In prostate cancer PC-3cell line, bufalin-induced apoptosis can be largely attenuated by a miR-181a inhibitor, which blocked bufalin-induced Bcl-2 reduction and caspase-3 activation.
Conclusions:
Our dataindicatedthat miR-181a mediates bufalin-induced apoptosis in PC-3 cells. Thus, we presented here a new pharmacological mechanism for bufalin in anti-tumor therapy.
