Fertility and Infertility Research Center, Health Technology Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Department of Sexual Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
Cell Mol Biol (Noisy-le-grand). 2021 Aug 31;67(2):89-94. doi: 10.14715/cmb/2021.67.2.13.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is one of the most common sexual disorders in men. During the past 30 years, there has been no new drug development for ED. Thus, exploring the genetic basis of ED deserves further study, in hope of developing new pharmacological treatments for ED. In this study, Real-Time PCR analysis was used to assess the expression of androgen regulatory protein (Andpro) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (Pdk4) genes in ED. For this purpose, the experiment was performed on 20 men with severe ED and 20 potent men. IIEF-15 was used to determine the ED severity. The study was conducted in the Department of Sexual Medicine of the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. The EDTA-Na vacuum blood tube was taken from ED patients and controls. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. After blood sampling, RNA was extracted from whole blood. Then cDNA was synthesized. The gene expression was analyzed through the qPCR method. The ß-actin was used as a reference gene. To further study these two proteins, their three-dimensional structures were predicted through I-TASSER. Compared with controls, in ED patients, the expression of the Andpro gene decreased, while the expression of the Pdk4 gene increased (p<0.01). Predicting the structure of the protein showed that Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase 4 had a double subunit and androgen-regulated protein had a single subunit.
勃起功能障碍（ED）是男性最常见的性功能障碍之一。在过去的 30 年中，ED 没有新的药物开发。因此，探索 ED 的遗传基础值得进一步研究，以期为 ED 开发新的药理学治疗方法。在这项研究中，实时 PCR 分析用于评估雄激素调节蛋白（Andpro）和丙酮酸脱氢酶激酶 4（Pdk4）基因在 ED 中的表达。为此，对 20 名严重 ED 男性和 20 名功能正常的男性进行了实验。IIEF-15 用于确定 ED 的严重程度。该研究在伊朗克尔曼沙阿医科大学性医学系进行。从 ED 患者和对照组中抽取 EDTA-Na 真空采血管。所有参与者均获得知情同意。采血后，从全血中提取 RNA。然后合成 cDNA。通过 qPCR 方法分析基因表达。β-肌动蛋白被用作参考基因。为了进一步研究这两种蛋白质，通过 I-TASSER 预测了它们的三维结构。与对照组相比，在 ED 患者中，Andpro 基因的表达降低，而 Pdk4 基因的表达增加（p<0.01）。预测蛋白质结构表明，丙酮酸脱氢酶激酶 4 具有双亚基，而雄激素调节蛋白具有单亚基。
