Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin gene lead to changes in the expression of apoptosis-related genes in PC3 cell line

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most frequent tumor malignancy around the world which accounts for about 10% of cancer-related deaths. α-toxin is one of the Staphylococcus aureus pore-forming toxins affecting the expression of apoptotic-related genes. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of S. aureus α-toxin on the expression of BCL2, BAX, and FAS in PC3 cell lines. In this study, PC3 cells were transfected with the pcDNA3.1(+)-α-toxin or empty pcDNA3.1(+) plasmids using Lipofectamine 2000. The cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) with 10% FBS. Then, the mRNA expression level of BCL2, BAX, and FAS was measured by qRT-PCR method. Our findings indicated that α-toxin of S. aureus markedly altered the expression level of the apoptotic-related gene of the PC3 cell line. The mRNA expression of BAX and FAS genes increased statistically significant in α-toxin treated PC3 cells compared with the control group. On the contrary, BCL2 mRNA expression showed a significant decrease compared with PC3 cells transformed by empty pcDNA3.1(+) plasmid. The present research suggested that α-toxin may be a tumor suppressor in prostate cancer. This toxin may be a potential therapeutic target for prostate cancer.