Abstract
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is one of the most common diseases in the urinary system of elderly men. Pao extract is an herbal preparation of the bark of the Amazon rainforest tree Pao Pereira (Geissospermum vellosii), which was reported to inhibit prostate cancer cell proliferation. Herein we investigated the therapeutic potential of Pao extract against BPH development in a testosterone-induced BPH rat model. The administration of testosterone induced the prostate enlargement, compared with the sham operated group with vehicle treatment. The BPH/Pao group showed reduced prostate weight comparable with BPH/finasteride group. Notably, Pao treatment did not significantly reduce body weights and sperm number of rats, compared with the control group. Furthermore, Pao extract treatment reduced the proliferative index in prostate glands and testosterone-induced expression levels of AR, as well as androgen-associated proteins such as SRD5A1 and PSA. Moreover, Pao extract and its active component, flavopereirine, induced cytotoxicity on human prostate epithelial RWPE-1 cells in a dose- and time- dependent manner with G2/M arrest. Consistently, Pao extract and flavopereirine suppressed the expression levels of SRD5A1, AR and PSA, respectively. Together, these data demonstrated that Pao extract suppresses testosterone-induced BPH development through inhibiting AR activity and expression, and suggested that Pao extract may be a promising and relative safe agent for BPH.
Highlights
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate gland, is a very frequent condition among older men
The castrated rats were treated with testosterone propionate (TP), and the finasteride treatment was used as a positive control and sham group is referred to as control
Pao extract, derived from bark of Amazonian tree Pao Pereira, is commonly used in South American medicine to treat a variety of ailments including cancer[23,24]
Summary
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate gland, is a very frequent condition among older men It is characterized by progressive overgrowth of both glandular and stromal tissues, causing an increase in prostate size[1,2]. Inhibitors of 5α-reductases (5αRIs, e.g. finasteride) are commonly used for the BPH treatment because they reduce the level of DHT13. Another BPH therapeutic agent, α1-adrenoceptor antagonists (such as α-blockers) primarily target the smooth muscles in the bladder neck and prostate, resulting in the relaxation of the smooth muscles and the subsequent alleviation of symptoms[14]. Given that BPH is caused by increased proliferative rates of prostate epithelial and stromal cells, we hypothesize that Pao extract can suppress BPH development by inhibiting prostate cell proliferation.
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