Fenofibrate mitigates testosterone induced benign prostatic hyperplasia via regulation of Akt/FOXO3a pathway and modulation of apoptosis and proliferation in rats

Sestrin2 ameliorates age-related spontaneous benign prostatic hyperplasia via activation of AMPK/mTOR dependent autophagy

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), characterized as a chronic disease with unregulated enlargement of prostatic gland, is commonly observed in elderly men leading to lower urinary tract dysfunction. Sestrin2 plays a role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and protects organisms from various stimuli. The exact role of Sestrin2 in the etiology of BPH, a common age-related disease, remains unknown. Here, we explored the regulatory function of Sestrin2 in modulating autophagy and its therapeutic role in spontaneous BPH. In vivo study, the 3-month-old (3 M) and 24-month-old (24 M) mice were used, and the 24 M mice were additionally administered recombinant Sestrin2 protein (rp-Sestrin2) for consecutive 14 days. In vitro, BPH-1 cells were transfected with an empty or Sestrin2 overexpression vector. Sestrin2 expression in mice prostate was gradually declined with age. Administration of rp-Sestrin2 to these mice suppressed prostatic hyperplasia, restored the balance between proliferation and apoptosis, and reduced prostatic fibrosis. Moreover, rp-Sestrin2 treatment enhanced autophagy by activating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, as evidenced by increased autophagosome and autolysosome formation, along with a decrease in degradation marker such as p62. Our findings were further supported by in vitro studies, where Sestrin2 overexpression induced autophagy via AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. These results suggest that Sestrin2 plays a critical role in attenuating spontaneous BPH by regulating autophagy through AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway. This study provides novel insights into the therapeutic potential of Sestrin2 in age-related spontaneous BPH.

Reno-protective effect of fenofibrate and febuxostat against vancomycin-induced acute renal injury in rats: Targeting PPARγ/NF-κB/COX-II and AMPK/Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathways

BACKGROUND

Vancomycin (VCM) is used clinically to treat serious infections caused by multi-resistant Gram-positive bacteria, although its use is severely constrained by nephrotoxicity. This study investigated the possible nephroprotective effect of febuxostat (FX) and/or fenofibrate (FENO) and their possible underlying mechanisms against VCM-induced nephrotoxicity in a rat model.

METHODS

Male Wistar rats were randomly allocated into five groups; Control, VCM, FX, FENO, and combination groups. Nephrotoxicity was evaluated histopathologically and biochemically. The oxidative stress biomarkers (SOD, MDA, GSH, total nitrite, GPx, MPO), the apoptotic marker, renal Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax), and inflammatory and kidney injury markers (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, Nrf2, OH-1, kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), NADPH oxidase, Kim-1, COX-II, NGAL, Cys-C were also evaluated.

RESULTS

VCM resulted in significant elevation in markers of kidney damage, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and inflammatory markers. Co-administration of VCM with either/or FX and FENO significantly mitigated nephrotoxicity and associated oxidative stress, inflammatory and apoptotic markers. In comparison to either treatment alone, a more notable improvement was observed with the FX and FENO combination regimen.

CONCLUSION

Our findings show that FX, FENO, and their combination regimen have a nephroprotective impact on VCM-induced kidney injury by suppressing oxidative stress, apoptosis, and the inflammatory response. Renal recovery from VCM-induced injury was accomplished by activation of Nrf2/HO-1 signaling and inhibition of NF-κB expression. This study highlights the importance of FX and FENO as effective therapies for reducing nephrotoxicity in VCM-treated patients.

Combination of Lycopene and Curcumin Synergistically Alleviates Testosterone-Propionate-Induced Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Sprague Dawley Rats via Modulating Inflammation and Proliferation

BACKGROUND

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a progressive urological disease occurring in middle-aged and elderly men, which can be characterized by the non-malignant overgrowth of stromal and epithelial cells in the transition zone of the prostate. Previous studies have demonstrated that lycopene can inhibit proliferation, while curcumin can strongly inhibit inflammation. This study aims to determine the inhibitory effect of the combination of lycopene and curcumin on BPH.

METHOD

To induce BPH models in vitro and in vivo, the BPH-1 cell line and Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were used, respectively. Rats were divided into six groups and treated daily with a vehicle, lycopene (12.5 mg/kg), curcumin (2.4 mg/kg), a combination of lycopene and curcumin (12.5 mg/kg + 2.4 mg/kg) or finasteride (5 mg/kg). Histologic sections were examined via hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemistry. Hormone and inflammatory indicators were detected via ELISA. Network pharmacology analysis was used to fully predict the therapeutic mechanism of the combination of lycopene and curcumin on BPH.

RESULTS

Combination treatment significantly attenuated prostate hyperplasia, alleviated BPH pathological features and decreased the expression of Ki-67 in rats. The upregulation of the expression of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), 5α-reductase, estradiol (E2) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in BPH rats was significantly blocked by the combination treatment. The expression levels of inflammatory factors including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were strongly inhibited by the combination treatment. From the network pharmacology analysis, it was found that the main targets for inhibiting BPH are AKT1, TNF, EGFR, STAT3 and PTGS2, which are enriched in pathways in cancer.

CONCLUSION

The lycopene and curcumin combination is a potential and more effective agent to prevent or treat BPH.

Screening and Identification of a Prognostic Model of Ovarian Cancer by Combination of Transcriptomic and Proteomic Data

The integration of transcriptome and proteome analysis can lead to the discovery of a myriad of biological insights into ovarian cancer. Proteome, clinical, and transcriptome data about ovarian cancer were downloaded from TCGA's database. A LASSO-Cox regression was used to uncover prognostic-related proteins and develop a new protein prognostic signature for patients with ovarian cancer to predict their prognosis. Patients were brought together in subgroups using a consensus clustering analysis of prognostic-related proteins. To further investigate the role of proteins and protein-coding genes in ovarian cancer, additional analyses were performed using multiple online databases (HPA, Sangerbox, TIMER, cBioPortal, TISCH, and CancerSEA). The final resulting prognosis factors consisted of seven protective factors (P38MAPK, RAB11, FOXO3A, AR, BETACATENIN, Sox2, and IGFRb) and two risk factors (AKT_pS473 and ERCC5), which can be used to construct a prognosis-related protein model. A significant difference in overall survival (OS), disease-free interval (DFI), disease-specific survival (DSS), and progression-free interval (PFI) curves were found in the training, testing, and whole sets when analyzing the protein-based risk score (p < 0.05). We also illustrated a wide range of functions, immune checkpoints, and tumor-infiltrating immune cells in prognosis-related protein signatures. Additionally, the protein-coding genes were significantly correlated with each other. EMTAB8107 and GSE154600 single-cell data revealed that the genes were highly expressed. Furthermore, the genes were related to tumor functional states (angiogenesis, invasion, and quiescence). We reported and validated a survivability prediction model for ovarian cancer based on prognostic-related protein signatures. A strong correlation was found between the signatures, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, and immune checkpoints. The protein-coding genes were highly expressed in single-cell RNA and bulk RNA sequencing, correlating with both each other and tumor functional states.

SH-PRO extract alleviates benign prostatic hyperplasia via ROS-mediated activation of PARP/caspase 3 and inhibition of FOXO3a/AR/PSA signaling in vitro and in vivo

To target benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) as a common urinary disease in old men, in the current study, the antiproliferative and apoptotic mechanism of SH-PRO, a mixture of Angelica gigas and Astragalus membranaceus (2:1), was evaluated in BPH-1 cells and rats with testosterone-induced BPH. Herein, SH-PRO significantly reduced the viability of BPH-1 cells and dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-treated RWPE-1 cells. Also, SH-PRO increased the sub-G1 population in BPH-1 cells and consistently attenuated the expression of pro-PARP, pro-caspase 3, Bcl2, FOXO3a, androgen receptor (AR), and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in BPH-1 cells and DHT-treated RWPE-1 cells. Of note, SH-PRO generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) in BPH-1 cells, while ROS inhibitor N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) disturbed the ability of SH-PRO to reduce the expression of pro-PARP, FOXO3a, catalase, SOD, and increase sub-G1 population in BPH-1 cells. Furthermore, oral treatment of SH-PRO significantly abrogated the weight of the prostate in testosterone-treated rats compared to BPH control with the reduced expression of AR, PSA, and DHT and lower plasma levels of DTH, bFGF, and EGF with no toxicity. Overall, these findings highlight the antiproliferative and apoptotic potential of SH-PRO via ROS-mediated activation of PARP and caspase 3 and inhibition of FOXO3a/AR/PSA signaling as a potent anti-BPH candidate.

Cordycepin Attenuates Testosterone-Induced Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia in Rats via Modulation of AMPK and AKT Activation

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a disease that commonly affects elderly men. Cordycepin is an adenosine analog with a wide range of pharmacological activities including antiproliferative and prostatic smooth muscle relaxant effects. This study was designed to assess the actions of cordycepin in testosterone-induced BPH in rats. Animals were divided into six treatment groups: control, cordycepin-alone (10 mg/kg), testosterone-alone (3 mg/kg), cordycepin (5 mg/kg) + testosterone, cordycepin (10 mg/kg) + testosterone, and finasteride (0.5 mg/kg) + testosterone. Treatments were continued daily, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks. Cordycepin significantly prevented the increase in prostate weight and prostate index induced by testosterone. This was confirmed by histopathological examinations. Cordycepin antiproliferative activity was further defined by its ability to inhibit cyclin-D1 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression. In addition, cordycepin exhibited significant antioxidant properties as proven by the prevention of lipid peroxidation, reduced glutathione diminution, and superoxide dismutase exhaustion. This was paralleled by anti-inflammatory activity as shown by the inhibition of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and nuclear factor-κB expression in prostatic tissues. It also enhanced apoptosis as demonstrated by its ability to enhance and inhibit mRNA expression of Bax and Bcl2, respectively. Western blot analysis indicated that cordycepin augmented phospho-AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) and inhibited p-AKT expression. Collectively, cordycepin has the ability to prevent testosterone-induced BPH in rats. This is mediated, at least partially, by its antiproliferative, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and pro-apoptotic actions in addition to its modulation of AMPK and AKT activation.

Frozen-Thawed Sperm Analysis of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Dogs Treated With Finasteride

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is a pathological condition that directly interferes with the reproductive potential of senile dogs, by leading to prostate enlargement and sperm injury, which in turn may compromise sperm freezeability. Moreover, albeit finasteride treatment reduces prostatic volume and blood supply and maintains seminal quality and testicular integrity, the effects of sperm samples submitted to cryopreservation after the finasteride treatment are still unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate frozen-thawed semen of BPH dogs, as well as dogs subjected to BPH pharmacological treatment with finasteride. For such purpose, 20 dogs were previously selected and assigned to three experimental groups, according to BPH diagnosis and treatment with finasteride: Control (n = 9), BPH Group (n = 5) and BPH-Finasteride Group (n = 6). Semen was subjected to one-step cryopreservation protocol with tris-fructose-citric acid extender with 5% glycerol and thawed at 37°C for 30 sec. Fresh and post-thaw sperm samples were evaluated for macroscopic parameters, sperm concentration, sperm motility kinetics, sperm mitochondrial activity and potential, oxidative stress, plasmatic and acrosome membrane integrity, sperm DNA fragmentation and sperm binding test on perivitelic membrane of chicken egg yolk. Regarding fresh semen, BPH-Finasteride group had the lowest ejaculate visual aspect (opacity), higher frequency of sperm flagellar beating (BCF) and percentage of sperm with medium velocity. Control group had the highest percentage of sperm DNA integrity compared to BPH group. For the frozen-thawed semen, Control group presented the highest percentage of spermatozoa with high mitochondrial activity. However, the BPH-Finasteride group showed higher number of sperm bound to the perivitelline membrane of chicken egg yolk compared to the BPH Group. Conversely, BPH group had higher percentage of DNA damage. In conclusion, the ejaculate of BPH dogs has higher susceptibility to cryoinjury, whereas finasteride-treated dogs have increased spermatozoa functional performance, suggesting a promising use of BPH dogs as semen donors in sperm cryopreservation programs.