Abstract

It has been postulated that the R- and S-equol enantiomers have different biological properties given their different binding affinities for the estrogen receptor S-(-)equol is produced via the bacterial conversion of the soy isoflavone daidzein in the gut. We have compared the biological effects of purified S-equol to that of racemic (R and S) equol on breast and prostate cancer cells of varying receptor status in vitro. Both racemic and S-equol inhibited the growth of the breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 (>= 10 mu M) and the prostate cancer cell lines LNCaP (>= 5 mu M) and LAPC-4 (>= 2.5 mu M). The compounds also showed equipotent effects in inhibiting the invasion of MDA-MB-231 and PC-3 cancer cells through matrigel. S-equol (1, 10, 30 mu M) was unable to prevent DNA damage in MCF-7 or MCF-10A breast cells following exposure to 2-hydroxy-4-nonenal, menadione, or benzo(a)pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide. lit contrast, racemic equol (10, 30 mu M) prevented DNA damage in MCF-10A cells following exposure to 2-hydroxy-4-nonenal or menadione. These findings suggest that racemic equol has strong antigenotoxic activity in contrast to the purified S-equol enantionzer implicating the R-, rather than the S-enantiomer as being responsible for the antioxidant effects of equol, a finding that may have implications for the in vivo chemoprotective properties of equol.