detailed descriptions of one or more preferred embodiments are provided herein . it is to be understood , however , that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms . therefore , specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present disclosure in any appropriate manner . in this specification and the appended claims , the singular forms “ a ,” “ an ,” and “ the ” include plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . unless defined otherwise , all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood to one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs . this disclosure describes the increased biosynthesis of the isoflavonoid phytoalexin compounds , glyceollins i , ii and iii , in soy plants grown under stressed conditions ( elicited soy ) and their marked effects on estrogen - modulated pathway function . to fully understand the role of glyceollins &# 39 ; anti - estrogenic , anti - androgenic and anti - cancer properties , we used the well - established model of lncap and pc - 3 human prostate cancer cells in an in vitro model to examine the effects of glyceollins on cell growth . in this model , using the lncap and pc - 3 human prostate cancer cells , the in vitro anti - androgenic activity of the glyceollins has been established . as used herein , the term “ er ” refers to “ estrogen receptor ”. the term “ prostate cancer ” refers to any cancer having its origin in prostate cells , and includes metastatic and local forms of prostate cancer . the term “ minimize ” or “ reduce ”, or a derivative thereof , includes a complete or partial inhibition of a specified biological effect ( which is apparent from the context in which the term minimize is used ). the term “ glyceollin ” may mean both a single glyceollin and plural glyceollins when the glyceollin is defined as at least one of a selected group of glyceollins . the glyceollin compounds used in the compositions and methods of the present disclosure are naturally occurring substances which may be found in plants such as soybeans that are stressed or that have been treated with elicitors . the glyceollin compounds may be isolated from the plant sources in which they naturally occur after treatment with an elicitor , or may be synthetically prepared by processes known in the art . it is preferred to extract the glyceollins useful in the compositions and methods of the present disclosure from the plant materials in which they naturally occur . a preferred method of isolating the glyceollin compounds is to extract the plant materials with an alcohol , preferably methanol or ethanol , or an aqueous methanolic solution , to remove the glyceollins from the plant material . it is preferred to comminute the plant material before extracting the glyceollin compounds to maximize recovery of glyceollin compounds from the plant material . the glyceollin compounds are isolated from the extract by conventional separation procedures , such as high performance liquid chromatography , hplc . in a preferred embodiment , the glyceollin compounds are isolated from a soy material . soy materials from which the glyceollin compounds can be isolated include elicitor - treated : soy seeds , soybeans , dehulled soybeans , soy cotyldeons , soy leaf tissue , soy roots , and soy hypocotyls . in one embodiment , the glyceollins are extracted from soy seeds , with a low molecular weight organic extractant , preferably an alcohol , ethyl acetate , acetone , or ether , and most preferably aqueous ethyl alcohol or methyl alcohol . here we demonstrate that specific glyceollins , isolated from elicited soy , displayed anti - androgenic activity , significantly inhibiting lncap cell growth in a concentration - dependent manner . the inhibitory effects of the glyceollins can be observed at 2 . 5 μm . the growth inhibitory effects of the glyceollins on lncap cells were similar to that observed for genistein ( fig2 ). however , in the androgen non - responsive prostate cancer cell pc - 3 ( fig3 ), the effects of glyceollins was attenuated . similar attenuated effects were also observed for genistein in pc - 3 cells ( fig3 ). to further elucidate the mechanism ( s ) by which the glyceollins treatment resulted in growth inhibition , the effects of the glyceollins on cell cycle progression was also examined . as shown in fig5 and fig6 , treatment of lncap cells with the glyceollins for 72 hours led to concentration - dependent effects on g1 / s arrest . similarly , treatment of lncap cell with genistein ( 25 μm ) for 72 hours also leads to g1 / g0 arrest ( fig4 ). by contrast , genistein ( 25 μm ) and not glyceollins ( 25 μm ) treatments for 72 hours lead to g2 / m blockage in pc - 3 cells ( fig8 ). glyceollins treatment appeared to lead to s phase blockages in pc3 cells ( fig8 ). the cell cycle analysis did not reveal any significant effects of the glyceollins on apoptotic events as indicated by lack of sub - 2n pi staining of dna ( fig6 and fig7 ). additionally , induction of the caspase 3 / 7 activation in glyceollins treated lncap cells was not observed . the cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitors cdkn1a and b mrna expression are modulated during cell cycle progression and are involved in g1 / s arrest . to gain additional perspective at the molecular levels of the glyceollins growth inhibitory effects , the effects of the glyceollins on cdkn1a and b mrna levels in lncap cells was also determined . as shown in fig9 and fig1 , after 48 hours treatment glyceollin appeared to induce both cdkn1a and b mrna levels . there were significant changes at 2 . 5 μm for both cdkn1a and b mrna levels . up regulation of these cyclin inhibitors were confirmed at the protein level ( fig1 ). by contrast an induction of cdkn1a mrna by genistein was only observed at 25 μm ( fig1 ), there were no changes in cdkn1b mrna levels in lncap cells treated with genistein at all concentrations ( 0 - 25 μm ) tested . consistent with lack of effect of the glyceollins on apoptosis , no alteration was detected in either bax or bcl - 2 , two well documented regulators of apoptosis pathways , mrna expression . prostate cancer lncap cell growth can be subject to modulation by androgen as well as estrogen . to further identify proximal events modulated by the glyceollins that result in cell cycle arrest and growth inhibition , the effects of the glyceollins on dht ( 1 nm ) and 17β - estradiol ( 10 nm ) induced lncap cell growth were examined . the concentration of steroid hormones was chosen based on their physiological achievable levels as well as in - vitro efficacy . as shown in fig1 , after 72 hr treatment of lncap cells with the glyceollins led to an inhibition of 17β - estradiol - induced growth , but not dht - induced growth of lncap cells . it has been previously shown that the androgen responsive genes psa not only respond to androgen , but also to 17β - estradiol through er - β - mediated events . hence , the effects of glyceollins on this gene were examined as a surrogate end point to further elucidate the effects of the glyceollins on the androgen - and estrogen - responsive pathways . as shown in fig1 and fig1 , glyceollins treatment of lncap cell culture in 10 % fbs for 48 hours led to an attenuation of psa mrna and protein levels supporting the hypothesis of possible hormonal regulation . as shown in fig1 , the glyceollins appeared not to be effective in inhibiting the dht - induced increase in psa mrna levels . it required at least 25 μm of glyceollins to produce a significant inhibition of dht - induced psa mrna levels . in contrast , the glyceollins effectively inhibited the 17β - estradiol - induced increase in psa mrna levels ( fig1 ). the effect can be seen starting at a concentration of 0 . 25 μm . furthermore the inhibition of 17β - estradiol - induced increase in two other androgen / estrogen responsive genes , nkx3 . 1 ( fig1 ) and igf - ir ( fig1 ) mrna levels , was also observed . the concentration effects of glyceollins on these two genes were similar to the effect on psa mrna and occur at 0 . 25 μm . chemicals . dihydrotestosterone ( dht ), dimethylsulfoxide ( dmso ), and genistein , 17β - estradiol were from sigma chemical co . ( st . louis , mo .). cell culture media and reagents were purchased from invitrogen ( carlsbad , calif .). soybean treatment and harvesting . aspergillus sojae ( srrc 1125 ) cultures were grown at 25 ° c . in the dark on potato dextrose agar . after 5 days , inoculum was prepared by harvesting conidia ( 3 . 4 × 10 7 / ml ) in 15 ml sterile , distilled h 2 o . seeds from commercial soybean variety asgrow 5902 were surface - sterilized for 3 min in 70 % ethanol followed by a quick deionized - h 2 o rinse and two 2 min rinses in deionized - h 2 o . seeds were presoaked in sterile deionized - h 2 o for 4 - 5 hr , and then chopped for 2 min in a cuisinart food processor . aspergillus sojae spore suspension ( 300 ml ) was applied to the cut surface of seeds on each tray . all trays were stored at 25 ° c . in the dark for three days , rinsed with water to remove spores , and oven dried at 40 ° c . for 24 hrs . seeds were ground using a waring blender before extraction . isolation of glyceollins ( i - iii ). the glyceollins i , ii , and iii were extracted from the 300 g ground seeds with 1 l methanol . the glyceollins were isolated using preparative scale hplc using two waters 25 mm 10 mm particle size mbondapak c18 radial compression column segments combined using an extension tube . hplc was performed on a waters 600e system controller combined with a waters uv - vis 996 detector . elution was carried out at a flow rate of 8 . 0 ml / min with the following solvent system : a = acetonitrile , b = water ; 5 % a for 10 min , then 5 % a to 90 % a in 60 min followed by holding at 90 % a for 20 min . the injection volume was 20 ml . the fraction containing the glyceollins was concentrated under vacuum and freeze - dried . the glyceollins were confirmed by uv - vis spectrophotometry , mass spectrometry , and nmr . the solvents acetonitrile ( hplc grade ) and methanol were purchased from aldrich chemical company . water was obtained using a millipore system and used during sample preparation procedures and hplc analyses . a mixture of glyceollins i ( 68 %), ii ( 21 %), and iii ( 11 %) were isolated ( see fig1 ) and used in treatments . an average mw of 338 was use to calculate the concentration of glyceollins used in all cell culture experiments . cells and cell culture . lncap and pc - 3 human prostate cancer cells were obtained from the american type culture collection ( manassas , va .) and maintained in media a [ rpmi 1640 medium with phenol red ( invitrogen , carlsbad , calif . ), 2 mm l - glutamine ( sigma ), 100 u / ml penicillin and 100 μg / ml streptomycin ( biosource international , camarillo , calif .) with 10 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ) ( invitrogen , carlsbad , calif .)]. cells were incubated in the presence of 5 % co 2 in air at 37 ° c . cell growth assay . lncap or pc - 3 cells ( 5 × 10 4 cells / well ) were plated in 24 - well plates ( costar ); treatments were begun 24 h later . cells were treated with 0 , 1 , 5 , 10 or 25 μm glyceollins or genistein ( dmso as vehicle ) for 0 - 72 h , and the medium containing test compound was replaced every 24 h . cell growth was analyzed using the sulforhodamine b ( srb ) assay . for experiments using the dht or 17β - estradiol , cells were switched to media b [ rpmi 1640 medium without phenol red , 2 mm l - glutamine ( sigma ), 100 u / ml penicillin and 100 μg / ml streptomycin with 10 % charcoal dextran - treated fbs ( cds , hyclone , logan , utah )] 24 h after plating to minimize the effect of serum hormones . the cells were then incubated in media b for an additional 24 hours before the treatments were begun . cell cycle analysis using flow cytometry . lncap or pc3 cells ( 3 × 10 6 cells ) were seeded into t - 175 flask in medium a . twenty - four hours later the medium was changed to that containing vehicle or test compounds . concentration dependent effects of glyceollins ( 0 - 25 μm was studied in lncap cell . in pc - 3 cell , comparisons were made between cells treated with or without 25 μm glyceollins . for genistein , comparisons were made between cell treated with or without 25 μm genistein in both lncap and pc - 3 cells . cells were treated for 72 hours and harvested , transferred into centrifuge tubes ( 50 ml polypropylene ) pellet ( 1000 × g ), wash 1 × in pbs ( no ca or mg ) and pelleted again . cell pellets were then re - suspended in 1 . 5 ml pbs . to re - suspended cells , 15 ml of 70 % ethanol was added and the capped tubes vortexed gently . the ethanol fixed cells were pelleted and washed one time in pbs . washed cells were fixed in ethanol and stained for dna content using propidium iodide ( pi ). the cellular dna was then analyzed by flow cytometry . dna content of the cells was determined through flow cytometry using a facscalibur cytometer ( becton dickinson , san jose , calif .). flow cytometric data files were collected and analyzed using the cellquest program ( becton dickinson ). a total of 10 , 000 cell events were collected for dna analyses . cell cycle distribution percentages of stained nuclei were calculated using modfit lt software ( version 3 . 0 , verity software house , inc ., topsham , me .). calibration standards ( linearflow green and dna qc particle kit ) for verification of instrument performance were purchased from molecular probes ( eugene , oreg .) and becton dickinson , respectively . determination of the effects of glyceollins on gene expression in lncap cells using rt - pcr . to examine the effects of glyceollins on cyclin inhibitor cdkn1a and b mrna expression , lncap cells were plated in 6 - well plates ( 0 . 25 × 10 6 cells / well ) in media a . after twenty - four hours the medium was removed and replaced with fresh medium containing vehicle , 1 , 5 , or 25 μm glyceollins or genistein . for experiments examining the effects of glyceollins on steroid hormone , lncap cells were plated in 6 - well plates ( 0 . 25 × 10 6 cells / well ) in media a and switched to media b containing 10 % cds 24 h after plating to minimize the effect of serum hormones . twenty - four hours later , the medium was replaced with fresh medium containing 1 nm dht or 17β - estradiol with or without 0 - 25 μm glyceollin . for all experiments fresh medium containing the test compounds was changed daily and cells were harvested for total rna isolation using the trizol method ( invitrogen ) after 48 h . taqman real - time pcr was used to quantify expression of the mrna . taqman real - time pcr primer and probes for glyceraldehydes - 3 - phosphate dehydrogenase ( g3pdh ), psa , cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitor ( cdkn ) 1a and cdkn1b , nkx3 . 1 ( nk3 homeobox 1 ), bcl - 2 , bax and insulin like growth factor - 1 receptor ( igf - 1r ) were purchased form applied biosystems ( foster city , calif .). apoptosis assay . activation of caspase was used as an additional method to flow cytometry to detect apoptosis . lncap cells ( 1 × 10 6 cells / well ) were plated in 6 - well plates and 24 hrs later the glyceollins ( 25 μm final concentration ) were added . after 72 hrs of treatment with or without the test compounds , cells were washed with pbs once and lysed in cell lysis buffer ( biosource , camarillo , calif .). protein was determined using the bca method ( pierce , rockford , ill .) according to manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . fifty μg of lysate was used for determination of caspase activity using the caspase - glo 3 / 7 assay ( promega , madison , wis .) following manufacturer &# 39 ; s protocol . western blots . lncap cells were plated in 100 mm × 20 mm cell culture dish in media a and switched to media b containing 10 % cds 24 hours after plating to minimize the effect of serum hormones . twenty - four hours later , the medium was replaced with fresh medium containing vehicle ( dmso ) or 25 μm glyceollins . fresh medium containing the test compound was changed daily and cells were harvested for western blot analysis after 72 hours of treatments . the lysed extracts were collected , than centrifuged at 10 , 000 × g for 10 minutes . the supernatants were used to determine the protein concentration . following this , the supernatant , sample buffer , and reducing agent were added and the samples were heated at 105 ° c . and loaded onto a 4 - 12 % gradient sds - page gel ( invitrogen , carlsbad , calif .). gels were then transferred to nitrocellulose membranes and the membranes were probed with mouse anti - p21 waf1 / cip1 and rabbit anti - p27 kip1 at a 1 : 1000 dilution as primary antibodies ( cell signaling , danvers , mass .) followed by incubation with ir - tagged secondary antibodies ( licor biosciences , lincoln , neb .). the blots were analyzed using the odyssey infrared imaging system ( licor biosciences , lincoln , neb .). statistics . all treatments were repeated at least 3 times and representative experiments were presented . experimental data were analyzed using the prism 4 statistical software package ( graphpad software .). unpaired t tests were used for two group comparisons . for multiple group comparisons , anova followed by post hoc analysis using bonferroni &# 39 ; s test were employed . treatments effects with a p value of & lt ; 0 . 05 were considered significant . the present disclosure is further illustrated by the following examples . these examples are provided to aid in the understanding of the disclosure and are not construed as a limitation thereof . to examine the effects of glyceollins on prostate cancer prevention , we first tested the effects of glyceollin on lncap cell growth . as shown in fig2 , after 72 hours treatment , glyceollins inhibited lncap cell growth in a concentration - dependent manner . the inhibitory effects of the glyceollins can be observed at 2 . 5 μm . the growth inhibitory effects of the glyceollins on lncap cells were similar to that observed for genistein ( fig2 ). however , in the androgen non - responsive prostate cancer cell pc - 3 ( fig3 ), the effects of glyceollins was attenuated . similar attenuated effects were also observed for genistein in pc - 3 cells ( fig3 ). to further elucidate the mechanism ( s ) by which the glyceollins treatment resulted in growth inhibition , we also examined the effects of the glyceollins on cell cycle progression . as shown in fig5 , fig6 and fig7 , treatment of lncap cells with the glyceollins for 72 hours led to concentration - dependent effects on g1 / s arrest . similarly , treatment of lncap cell with genistein ( 25 μm ) for 72 hours also leads to g1 / g0 arrest ( fig4 ). by contrast , genistein ( 25 μm ) and not glyceollins ( 25 μm ) treatments for 72 hours lead to g2 / m blockage in pc - 3 cells ( fig8 ). glyceollins treatment appeared to lead to s phase blockages in pc3 cells ( fig8 ). the cell cycle analysis did not reveal any significant effects of the glyceollins on apoptotic events as indicated by lack of sub - 2n pi staining of dna ( fig6 and fig7 ). additionally , we also did not observe induction of the caspase 3 / 7 activation in glyceollins treated lncap cells . effect of glyceollins on the modulation of cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitors mrna levels in lncap cells the cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitors cdkn1a and b mrna expression are modulated during cell cycle progression and are involved in g1 / s arrest . to gain additional perspective at the molecular levels of the glyceollins growth inhibitory effects , we also determined the effects of the glyceollins on cdkn1a and b mrna levels in lncap cells . as shown in fig9 and fig1 , after 48 hours treatment glyceollin appeared to induce both cdkn1a and b mrna levels . there were significant changes at 2 . 5 μm for both cdkn1a and b mrna levels . up regulation of these cyclin inhibitors were confirmed at the protein level ( fig1 ). by contrast we only observed an induction of cdkn1a mrna by genistein at 25 μm ( fig1 ), there were no changes in cdkn1b mrna levels in lncap cells treated with genistein at all concentrations ( 0 - 25 μm ) tested . consistent with lack of effect of the glyceollins on apoptosis , we also did not detect alteration in either bax or bcl - 2 , two well documented regulators of apoptosis pathways , mrna expression . prostate cancer lncap cell growth can be subject to modulation by androgen as well as estrogen . to further identify proximal events modulated by the glyceollins that result in cell cycle arrest and growth inhibition , we examined the effects of the glyceollins on dht ( 1 nm ) and 17β - estradiol ( 10 nm ) induced lncap cell growth . the concentration of steroid hormones was chosen based on their physiological achievable levels as well as in - vitro efficacy . as shown in fig1 , after 72 hr treatment of lncap cells with the glyceollins led to an inhibition of 17β - estradiol - induced growth , but not dht - induced growth of lncap cells . effects of glyceollins on androgen - and estrogen induced genes mrna levels in lncap cells we have previously shown that the androgen responsive genes psa not only respond to androgen , but also to 17β - estradiol through er - β - mediated events . hence , we examined the effects of glyceollins on this gene as a surrogate end point to further elucidate the effects of the glyceollins on the androgen - and estrogen - responsive pathways . as shown in fig1 and fig1 , glyceollins treatment of lncap cell culture in 10 % fbs for 48 hr led to an attenuation of psa mrna and protein levels supporting the hypothesis of possible hormonal regulation . this similar to that of genistein on psa mrna we reported earlier and protein ( fig1 ). we also ask whether this effect of glyceollins is through an androgen - or estrogen - dependent pathway . as shown in fig1 , the glyceollins appeared not to be effective in inhibiting the dht - induced increase in psa mrna levels . it required at least 25 μm of glyceollins to produce a significant inhibition of dht - induced psa mrna levels . in contrast , the glyceollins effectively inhibited the 17β - estradiol - induced increase in psa mrna levels ( fig1 ). the effect can be seen starting at a concentration of 0 . 25 μm . furthermore we also observed inhibition of 17β - estradiol - induced increase in two other androgen / estrogen responsive genes , nkx3 . 1 ( fig1 ) and igf - 1r ( fig1 ) mrna levels . the concentration effects of glyceollins on these two genes were similar to the effect on psa mrna and occur at 0 . 25 μm .
the present disclosure demonstrates the molecular effects of glyceollins on human prostate cancer cell lncap to further elucidate its potential effects on prostate cancer prevention . the glyceollins inhibited lncap cell growth similar to that of the soy isoflavone genistein . the growth inhibitory effects of the glyceollins appeared to be due to an inhibition on g1 / s progression and correlated with an up - regulation of cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitor a1 and b1 mrna and protein levels . by contrast , genistein only up - regulates cyclin - dependent kinase inhibitor a1 . in addition , glyceollin treatments led to down - regulated mrna levels for androgen responsive genes . in contrast to genistein , this effect of glyceollins on androgen responsive genes appeared to be mediated through modulation of an estrogen - but not androgen - mediated pathway . hence , the glyceollins exerted multiple effects on lncap cells that may be considered cancer preventive and the mechanisms of action appeared to be different from other soy - derived phytochemicals .