Park Jinbong, Youn Dong-Hyun, Um Jae-Young
Department of Pharmacology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Comorbidity Research Institute, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019 Jul 31;2019:6369132. doi: 10.1155/2019/6369132. eCollection 2019.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease in elderly men which can be characterized by an abnormal enlargement of the prostate associated with lower urinary symptoms. Current medications available for BPH treatment display several adverse effects; thus, the search for effective treatments with less side effects is still ongoing. In this study, we investigated the effect of Aconiti Lateralis Radix Preparata (dried root of Debx.; AL), which is an herb used to treat extremely cold symptoms in traditional Korean medicine, on BPH using a testosterone propionate- (TP-) induced BPH rat model. Eight-week inguinal injection of TP induced BPH in rats, the prostate of which was displaying an abnormal proliferation. The pathological proliferation of the prostate was ameliorated by AL treatment of 4 weeks. Pathohistological changes in the prostate including epithelial thickness and lumen area were restored in AL-treated rats. Furthermore, 5-reductase (5AR) and androgen receptor (AR), the two main factors in the pathogenesis of BPH, were decreased. In addition, the ratio of BAX and Bcl-2, an indicator of apoptosis, was increased by AL as well. Similar results were observed in AL-treated LNCaP prostate cancer cells. AL treatment suppressed the expression of the 5AR-AR axis and increased the ratio of BAX and Bcl-2. Apoptosis in the testis is considered a crucial side effect of finasteride, a 5AR inhibitor used to treat BPH. Our results showed that AL treatment did not display such effects, while finasteride treatment resulted in loss of spermatogenic cells within the prostate. Overall, these results suggest AL as a potentially safe nature-derived therapeutic agent for BPH treatment.
良性前列腺增生（BPH）是老年男性的常见疾病，其特征是前列腺异常增大并伴有下尿路症状。目前用于治疗BPH的药物有多种不良反应；因此，寻找副作用较小的有效治疗方法的研究仍在进行中。在本研究中，我们使用丙酸睾酮（TP）诱导的BPH大鼠模型，研究了中药中用于治疗极寒症状的草药附子（毛茛科植物乌头的干燥根；AL）对BPH的影响。连续8周腹股沟注射TP可诱导大鼠发生BPH，其前列腺出现异常增殖。经过4周的AL治疗，前列腺的病理增殖得到改善。接受AL治疗的大鼠前列腺的病理组织学变化，包括上皮厚度和管腔面积，均得以恢复。此外，BPH发病机制中的两个主要因素5-还原酶（5AR）和雄激素受体（AR）减少。此外，凋亡指标BAX与Bcl-2的比值也因AL而增加。在接受AL治疗的LNCaP前列腺癌细胞中也观察到了类似结果。AL治疗抑制了5AR-AR轴的表达，并增加了BAX与Bcl-2的比值。睾丸凋亡被认为是用于治疗BPH的5AR抑制剂非那雄胺的关键副作用。我们的结果表明，AL治疗未表现出此类作用，而非那雄胺治疗导致前列腺内生精细胞丧失。总体而言，这些结果表明AL作为一种潜在安全的天然来源治疗剂可用于BPH治疗。
