Diagnostic potential of trace metals concentration in expressed prostatic secretion and serum of patients with category IV prostatitis.

BACKGROUND: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) category IV prostatitis is a painless prostate gland inflammation, just as its name implies, this type of prostatitis is related with inflammation of the prostate, but most men are not conscious of it. However, category IV prostatitis is fairly common in general populations and reported having indirect relationships with prostate cancer. METHOD: We analyzed the concentration of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) in expressed prostatic secretion (EPS) and serum of patients with category IV prostatitis and healthy controls, investigating the diagnostic potential of different metals in category IV prostatitis using a flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). RESULTS: Metal concentration combined clinical characteristics analysis suggested that average level of Zn, Ca, Mg were significantly lower in the EPS of patients with category IV prostatitis (P-value< 0.000), while Cu level raised obviously (P-value< 0.000). And in the serum, mean concentrations of Ca was also found to increase significantly in the patients with category IV prostatitis compared to healthy controls. Moreover, the correlation analysis indicated that age showed a positive correlation with EPS Zn, Ca, Mg concentration (P-value< 0.05), while albumin correlates with EPS Zn, Ca, Mg concentration reversely (P-value< 0.05) in patients with category IV prostatitis. CONCLUSION: Our report revealed that determination of the metal elements zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium in the serum and EPS could be a new and promising strategy for the rapid diagnosis of category IV prostatitis.

Zinc Ion-Stabilized Aptamer-Targeted Black Phosphorus Nanosheets for Enhanced Photothermal/Chemotherapy Against Prostate Cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common malignancy among men worldwide. However, conventional chemotherapy, such as taxane therapy, fails to exhibit efficient treatment for almost half of the patients. In this study, a nano-drug delivery system based on black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs) was developed, which was then employed as a multifunctional nanoplatform for targeted combinational chemo-photothermal therapy against prostate cancer. Zinc ion (Zn2+), which has been proven to be able to inhibit prostate cancer cell proliferation, was also introduced into this system. Zn2+ coordination could not only enhance the therapeutic effect of combined chemo-photothermal therapy, but also improve the intrinsic instability of BP NSs through the stabilization of its lone pair electrons. The in vivo study showed the outstanding performance of this system in targeted photothermal/chemotherapy of prostate cancer without side effect to normal organs.

Impact of partial DAZ1/2 deletion and partial DAZ3/4 deletion on male infertility.

This study aims to investigate the effect of the partial DAZ1/2 deletion and partial DAZ3/4 deletion on male infertility through a comprehensive literature search. All case-control studies related to partial DAZ1/2 and DAZ3/4 deletions and male infertility risk were included in our study. Odd ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the strength of the association and its precision, respectively. Eleven partial DAZ1/2 deletion and nine partial DAZ3/4 deletion studies were included. Partial DAZ1/2 deletion was significantly associated with male infertility risk in the overall analysis (ORs=2.58, 95%CI: 1.60-4.18, I(2)=62.1%). Moreover, in the subgroup analysis stratified by ethnicity, partial DAZ1/2 deletion was significantly associated with male infertility risk in the East Asian populations under the random effect model (ORs=2.96, 95%CI: 1.87-4.71, I(2)=51.3%). Meanwhile, the analysis suggested that partial DAZ3/4 deletion was not associated with male infertility risk in East-Asian ethnicity (ORs=1.02, 95%CI: 0.54-1.92, I(2)=71.3%), but not in Non-East Asian under the random effect model (ORs=3.56, 95%CI: 1.13-11.23, I(2)=0.0%,). More interestingly, partial DAZ1/2 deletion was associated with azoospermia (ORs=2.63, 95%CI: 1.19-5.81, I(2)=64.7%) and oligozoospermia (ORs=2.53, 95%CI: 1.40-4.57, I(2)=51.8%), but partial DAZ3/4 deletion was not associated with azoospermia (ORs=0.71, 95%CI: 0.23-2.22, I(2)=71.7%,) and oligozoospermia (ORs=1.21, 95%CI: 0.65-2.24, I(2)=55.5%). In our meta-analysis, partial DAZ1/2 deletion is a risk factor for male infertility and different ethnicities have different influences, whereas partial DAZ3/4 deletion has no effect on fertility but partial DAZ3/4 deletion might have an impact on Non-East Asian male.

Serum quantitative proteomic analysis reveals potential zinc-associated biomarkers for nonbacterial prostatitis.

BACKGROUND: Prostatitis is one of the most common urological problems afflicting adult men. The etiology and pathogenesis of nonbacterial prostatitis, which accounts for 90-95% of cases, is largely unknown. As serum proteins often indicate the overall pathologic status of patients, we hypothesized that protein biomarkers of prostatitis might be identified by comparing the serum proteomes of patients with and without nonbacterial prostatitis. METHODS: All untreated samples were collected from subjects attending the Fangchenggang Area Male Health and Examination Survey (FAMHES). We profiled pooled serum samples from four carefully selected groups of patients (n = 10/group) representing the various categories of nonbacterial prostatitis (IIIa, IIIb, and IV) and matched healthy controls using a mass spectrometry-based 4-plex iTRAQ proteomic approach. More than 160 samples were validated by ELISA. RESULTS: Overall, 69 proteins were identified. Among them, 42, 52, and 37 proteins were identified with differential expression in Category IIIa, IIIb, and IV prostatitis, respectively. The 19 common proteins were related to immunity and defense, ion binding, transport, and proteolysis. Two zinc-binding proteins, superoxide dismutase 3 (SOD3), and carbonic anhydrase I (CA1), were significantly higher in all types of prostatitis than in the control. A receiver operating characteristic curve estimated sensitivities of 50.4 and 68.1% and specificities of 92.1 and 83.8% for CA1 and SOD3, respectively, in detecting nonbacterial prostatitis. The serum CA1 concentration was inversely correlated to the zinc concentration in expressed-prostatic secretions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that SOD3 and CA1 are potential diagnostic markers of nonbacterial prostatitis, although further large-scale studies are required. The molecular profiles of nonbacterial prostatitis pathogenesis may lay a foundation for discovery of new therapies.

Testosterone regulates smooth muscle contractile pathways in the rat prostate: emphasis on PDE5 signaling.

Testosterone (T) plays a permissive role in the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5is) have been found to be effective for BPH and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in clinical trials. This study investigated the effect of T on smooth muscle (SM) contractile and regulatory signaling pathways, including PDE5 expression and functional activity in prostate in male rats (sham-operated, surgically castrated, and castrated with T supplementation). In vitro organ bath studies, real-time RT-PCR, Western blot analysis, and immunohistochemistry were performed. Castration heavily attenuated contractility, including sensitivity to phenylephrine with SM myosin immunostaining revealing a disrupted SM cell arrangement in the stroma. PDE5 was immunolocalized exclusively in the prostate stroma, and orchiectomy signficantly reduced PDE5 immunopositivity, mRNA, and protein expression, along with nNOS and ROKß mRNA, whereas it increased eNOS plus α(1a) and α(1b) adrenoreceptor expression in castrated animals. The PDE5i zaprinast significantly increased prostate strip relaxation to the nitric oxide donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) in control but not castrated rats. But SNP alone was more effective on castrated rats, comparable with sham treated with SNP plus zaprinast. T supplementation prevented or restored all above changes, including SNP and zaprinast in vitro responsiveness. In conclusion, our data show that T positively regulates PDE5 expression and functional activities in prostate, and T ablation not only suppresses prostate size but also reduces prostatic SM contractility, with several potential SM contraction/relaxation pathways implicated. Zaprinast findings strongly suggest a major role for PDE5/cGMP in this signaling cascade. PDE5 inhibition may represent a novel mechanism for treatment of BPH.

[Oxytocin and male sexual function].

Oxytocin (OT) is a female hormone with the main function of facilitating uterine contraction and milk ejection. Recent studies show that OT is involved in multiple signaling pathways in the central and peripheral nerve system and mainly regulates the physiology and activity of reproduction, including male reproduction and sexual behavior. The roles of OT in penile erection are bio-phasic with proerectile effect in the central nerve system while peripherally inhibiting erection. OT also mediates ejaculation, post-ejaculatory detumescence and the post-orgasm refractory period. OT and OT-receptor in the central nerve system will be a new target in the drug development for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, while OT intracavernous injection promises to be an effective therapy for priapism. This review focuses on the effects of OT on male sexual activities.