Luteolin (not lutein) is a polyphenol. It is a flavone (in the flavonoid sub-family).
It is found, along with apigenin - another flavone, in parsley & celery.
There are 45 papers on PubMed for <luteolin prostate>.
[1] (1997) - U.S. (the oldest)
Why, over 20 years ago, did these guys think that the antiestrogen propery of luteolin might be useful in PCa? Luteolin halted cell cycle progression in LNCaP & PC-3 cells.
"... this bioflavonoid also blocked the growth of subcutaneous PC-3 cell xenografts in athymic nude mice."
[2] (2002) - Japan.
p53 is a tumor suppressor protein which is often silenced in PCa. A downstream target of p53 is p21, which regulates cell division.
Apigenin and luteolin increased p21 levels. "Apigenin induced p21 production through a p53-dependent pathway, but luteolin did so in a p53-independent manner."
[3] (2005) - Belgium
FAS (fatty acid synthase) is often up-regulated in PCa cells. FAS is an enzyme required for the synthesis of fatty acids.
"... luteolin, quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin, and taxifolin, ... markedly inhibited cancer cell lipogenesis. Interestingly, in both prostate and breast cancer cells, a remarkable dose-response parallelism was observed between flavonoid-induced inhibition of fatty acid synthesis, inhibition of cell growth, and induction of apoptosis. In support for a role of fatty acid synthesis in these effects, the addition of exogenous palmitate, the end product of FAS, markedly suppressed the cytotoxic effects of flavonoids."
[4] (2007) - China
IGF-I (Insulin-like growth factor 1) is associated with aggressive PCa growth. IGF-I is normally largely inactive, being bound to IGF binding proteins, such as IGFBP3. But in PCa, IGFBP3 levels are much reduced, & there is an increase in the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) too.
"Luteolin inhibited insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) induced activation of IGF-1R"
"Luteolin ... increased expression of p21."
"As a result, luteolin suppressed proliferation and induced apoptosis of prostate cancer cells."
[5] (2008) - Taiwan
Heat shock proteins [HSP] are induced for a variety of reasons - not just when cells are subjected to heat. HSP-90 is an important chaperone for the androgen receptor [AR]. It acts as a bodyguard when the AR is activated & moves to the nucleus of the cell. "Luteolin reduced the association between AR and {HSP-90} causing AR degradation ..."
"Luteolin-mediated AR downregulation contributes to the inhibition of cell proliferation and the induction of apoptosis in LNCaP human prostate cancer cells, suggesting that AR is a molecular target for luteolin-mediated anticancer activity."
[6] (2009) - China
"E-cadherin ... mediates cell-cell adhesion. Decreased expression of E-cadherin results in a loss of cell-cell adhesion and an increased cell invasion. "
"We found that Luteolin induced expression of E-cadherin ..."
[7] (2012) - U.S.
"Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vascular beds, is essential for tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. ... We studied the antiangiogenic activity of luteolin using in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models."
"Taken together, our findings demonstrate that luteolin inhibits human prostate tumor growth by suppressing vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2-mediated angiogenesis."
[8] (2016) - Taiwan
"Dietary Flavonoids Luteolin and Quercetin Suppressed Cancer Stem Cell Properties and Metastatic Potential of Isolated Prostate Cancer Cells."
...
[9] Source. Not many products out there.
-Patrick
[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/215...
[2] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/117...
[3] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/155...
[4] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/170...
[5] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/180...
[6] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/195...
[7] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/233...
