Department of Natural Products and Alternative Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt.
Drug Chem Toxicol. 2021 Sep;44(5):533-543. doi: 10.1080/01480545.2019.1635149. Epub 2019 Jul 12.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disorder in men aged over 60 years and significantly contributes to the distressing lower urinary tract symptoms. Cucurbitacins are triterpene derivatives with diverse medicinal uses including prostate diseases. Cucurbitacin E glucoside was evaluated against testosterone-induced prostatic hyperplasia in mice. Our data indicate that it significantly inhibited the increase in prostate weight and prostate index. The compound ameliorated histopathological changes in prostatic architecture and inhibited the increase in glandular epithelial length induced by testosterone. These results were confirmed by decreased expression of cyclin D1 in prostatic tissues compared to those obtained from the testosterone-alone group. Also, it showed significant antioxidant activity as evidenced by inhibiting lipid peroxides accumulation, glutathione depletion and superoxide exhaustion. Further, it exhibited anti-inflammatory activity as it decreased cyclooxygenase-2 and interleukin-1β protein expression in prostatic tissues. Masson's trichrome staining of prostate sections indicated obvious antifibrotic activity that was supported by decreased α-smooth muscle actin expression. In conclusion, Cucurbitacin E glucoside inhibits testosterone-induced experimental BPH in mice due to, at least partly, its antiproliferative, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic effects.
良性前列腺增生症（BPH）是一种常见于 60 岁以上男性的疾病，会严重导致下尿路症状。葫芦素是具有多种药用用途的三萜衍生物，包括前列腺疾病。我们评估了葫芦素 E 葡萄糖苷对雄性小鼠睾酮诱导的前列腺增生的作用。我们的数据表明，它能显著抑制前列腺重量和前列腺指数的增加。该化合物改善了前列腺结构的组织病理学变化，并抑制了睾酮诱导的腺体上皮长度的增加。与仅用睾酮处理的组相比，前列腺组织中环细胞周期蛋白 D1 的表达降低，证实了这些结果。此外，它还表现出显著的抗氧化活性，能抑制脂质过氧化物的积累、谷胱甘肽的消耗和超氧化物的耗尽。此外，它还表现出抗炎活性，能降低前列腺组织中环氧化酶-2 和白细胞介素-1β 蛋白的表达。前列腺切片的 Masson 三色染色表明明显的抗纤维化活性，这得到了 α-平滑肌肌动蛋白表达降低的支持。总之，葫芦素 E 葡萄糖苷通过其抗增殖、抗氧化、抗炎和抗纤维化作用抑制了雄性小鼠睾酮诱导的实验性 BPH。
