Our previous work showed that celecoxib (Celebrex®), a
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor) was unique among other cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors in its superior ability to induce prostate
cancer cell death, indicating the involvement of non-COX-2 components in the mode of action of celecoxib. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effect of COX-2 depletion on apoptosis by tetracycline controllable COX-2 antisense constructs and performed a
structure-activity analysis of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib in PC-3 cells. Both strategies came out with the same conclusion, which is the unique apoptotic inducing activity of celecoxib comes from…
