Antitumor activity of interferon-β1a in hormone refractory prostate cancer with neuroendocrine differentiation

Purpose Type I interferons (IFN-α and IFN-β) are a class of cytokines that exert several biological activities, such as modulation of cell proliferation and differentiation and of the immune system. Although these cytokines interact with a common receptor complex, IFN-β showed a more potent antitumor activity than IFN-α in several tumor models. New recombinant human IFN-β products, such as IFN-β1a and IFN-β1b, have been produced in order to improve the stability and bioavailability of natural IFN-β. In this report, we analyzed the effects of recombinant IFN-β1a on the cell proliferation of two human androgen-resistant prostate cancer cell lines with neuroendocrine differentiation (DU-145, PC-3) and related mechanisms of action.