Nakamura Yasuhiro, McNamara Keely, Sasano Hironobu
Department of Pathology Tohoku University School of Medicine 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980- 8575 JAPAN.
Curr Mol Pharmacol. 2013 Jan 8.
Estrogens have been recently postulated as potential agents in the development and progression of prostate cancer. Previous studies have demonstrated presence of both variants of estrogen receptor (ER); ER alpha (ERα) and ER beta (ERβ) in differing proportions between normal prostate and prostate cancer. It has been previously suggested that estrogens may either accelerate or inhibit growth of prostate cancer cell growth, depending on ER status. In particular, ERβ is considered to have a growth inhibitory role in prostate tissue. ERβ is significantly expressed in human prostate cancer cells, and hence it is considered a key factor for anti-cancer therapy. Therefore, various types of ERβ ligands have been investigated to clarify the mechanism of ERβ-mediated pathway of inhibitory effects on prostate cancer cells. Herein, we review recent examinations of ERs in prostate cancer, and the significance of ER mediated signaling pathways, with a focus on ERβ as prospective therapeutic targets in prostate cancer.
雌激素最近被假定为前列腺癌发生和发展的潜在因素。先前的研究表明，雌激素受体（ER）的两种变体，即ERα和ERβ，在正常前列腺组织和前列腺癌组织中的比例不同。此前有研究表明，雌激素可能会加速或抑制前列腺癌细胞的生长，这取决于ER的状态。特别是，ERβ被认为在前列腺组织中具有生长抑制作用。ERβ在人前列腺癌细胞中显著表达，因此它被认为是抗癌治疗的关键因素。因此，人们已经研究了各种类型的ERβ配体，以阐明ERβ介导的对前列腺癌细胞抑制作用的途径机制。在此，我们综述了前列腺癌中ER的最新研究以及ER介导的信号通路的意义，重点关注ERβ作为前列腺癌潜在治疗靶点的研究。
