The effect of superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide imbalance on prostate cancer: an integrative in vivo and in vitro analysis.

The epidemiological impact of SOD2 imbalance on prostate cancer (PC) risk associated with genetic variations has previously been studied. However, we found no previous studies clarifying the nature of SOD2 effects on prostate cancer. Here, we performed integrated in vivo and in vitro protocols that analyzed the association between Ala16Val-SOD2 polymorphism and prostate cancer aggressiveness at the time of diagnosis and evaluated the effect of the imbalance on PC proliferation using the DU-145 PC cell line treated with paraquat and porphyrin. In the pharmacological model, paraquat was used to increase superoxide anion levels and porphyrin was the SOD2 analog. The results confirmed the impact of superoxide-hydrogen peroxide imbalance on PC cell biology since porphyrin decreased cell proliferation and both treatments modulated antioxidant genes. Therefore, our results corroborate previous suggestions that alteration of redox status could be exploited therapeutically in the treatment of PC.