Finasteride effects on microRNAs -16 and -221 and target genes Bcl-2 and p27 in pr...
| Grant number: | 10/16671-3 |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| Duration: | December 01, 2010 - November 30, 2012 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Morphology |
| Principal Investigator: | Sérgio Luis Felisbino |
| Grantee: | Sérgio Luis Felisbino |
| Home Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil |
| Assoc. researchers: | Andrei Moroz ; Flávia Karina Delella |
Abstract
Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most diagnosed cancer and the second cause of death by cancer among American and Western European men. In Brazil, the number of new PCa cases estimated to 2010 year is about 52.350. The PCa development and progression is a slow process and involve genetic and epigenetic alterations that unbalance the molecular mechanism responsible by the control of cellular proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Thus, prevention therapies against PCa have been proposed. Recently, Finasteride (Proscar®), an inhibitor used in the benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment, was approved by American Society of Urology as chemopreventive treatment for high risk PCa individuals. Nevertheless, others Urology Societies alerted the need of more studies for a safety use of Finasteride in prolonged chemoprevention protocols. Recent discoveries indicate that human tumors present epigenetic alterations, like dysregulated micro-RNAs expression (molecules that are considerate new oncogenes or tumoral suppressors) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) dysregulated expression (enzymes related with progression, invasion and metastasis of PCa. Bearing in mind the importance of PCa prevention and the questions about Finasteride effects on normal and tumoral prostate cells, the aim of this project is investigate Finasteride effects on some oncogenic and tumoral suppresors micro-RNAs and on protein expression and enzymatic activity of MMPs 2, and 9 and their tissue inhibitors TIMP1 and 2 in normal and tumoral prostatic epithelial cells in vitro. This project is directly related with an already proved Post-doctoral project (grant FAPESP number 2010-05042-5). (AU)