Quercetin modulates Wnt signaling components in prostate cancer cell line by inhibiting cell viability, migration, and metastases

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a plastic transition in tumor progression during which cancer cells undergo dramatic changes acquiring highly invasive properties. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) is an inducer of EMT in epithelial cells and is obligatory for acquiring invasive phenotype in carcinoma. TGF-beta plays a vital role in metastasis and tumorigenesis in prostate cancer, and mutations in the components of Wnt signaling pathways are associated with various kinds of cancers including prostate cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify alterations in Wnt signaling pathway components involved during prostate cancer progression and to determine the effect of quercetin on TGF-beta-induced EMT in prostate cancer (PC-3) cell line. The expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers and the components of Wnt signaling pathway were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction. It was observed that quercetin prevented TGF-beta-induced expression of vimentin and N-cadherin and increased the expression of E-cadherin in PC-3 cells, thus preventing TGF-beta-induced EMT. Furthermore, the relative expression of Twist, Snail, and Slug showed that quercetin significantly decreased TGF-beta-induced expression of Twist, Snail, and Slug. In the present study, the expression of epithelial markers were found to be upregulated in naive state and downregulated in induced state whereas the mesenchymal markers were found to be downregulated in naive state and upregulated in induced state. Thus, our study concludes that quercetin may prevent prostate cancer metastasis by regulating the components of Wnt pathway.