Sex steroid hormones in urinary exosomes as biomarkers for the prediction of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: Although they are involved in the progression of PCa, the use of sex steroid hormones in urinary exosomes as biomarkers for PCa remains obscure. Here, the potential use of sex steroid hormones in urinary exosomes as biomarkers was investigated for the prediction of early-stage PCa to assist in clinical diagnosis. METHODS: Two hundred and eighty-six participants were randomly recruited, 231 patients with PCa and 55 healthy controls. According to their Gleason scores (GSs), the patients with PCa were divided into two groups, mild PCa (GS6) (n = 116) and severe (≥GS7) group (n = 115). The concentrations of 8 sex steroid hormones in urinary exosomes were quantitated using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (LC-APCI-MS/MS). RESULTS: The results showed that the levels of 7 out of 8 sex steroids including dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), dehydroepiandrosteronesulfate (DHEAS), androstenedione (A4), testosterone (T), progesterone (P), dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and estrone (E1), but not estradiol (E2) in urinary exosomes, were not only distinguished the PCa patients from healthy controls, can also differentiate between patients with mild and severe PCa. Of the 8 selected urinary exosomal biomarkers, DHEA, DHEAS, T, and DHT were finally screened further to build the regression model, and the detection method of the 4 biomarkers-combined achieved an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.854 and predictive accuracy of 78.2%. CONCLUSION: Our data showed the use of exosomal sex steroids in urine could be as biomarkers for predicting PCa for the first time. This finding would supply a novel insight for PCa diagnosis.

Effects and Mechanism of Chlorogenic Acid on Weight Loss.

BACKGROUND: Chlorogenic Acid (CA) has diverse, recognized health effects. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the effects of CA on fat reduction and the underlying mechanism of these effects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: First, we established a Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)-induced obesity mouse model and subjected the mice to 4 weeks of CA gavage. Then, we established an oleic acidinduced model of human fatty liver in HepG2 cells, and administered a CA intervention to the cells for 48 h. Finally, we used Oil red O staining, biochemical detection kits, RT-PCR and Western blot analysis to evaluate the effects of CA on fat reduction and on related pathways. RESULTS: The CA treatment could reduce fat accumulation in the liver and reduce blood lipid levels. In addition, CA decreased the mRNA and protein levels of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, coactivator 1 α (PGC-1α) and Uncoupling Protein 1 (UCP1) in the MSG-induced obesity mouse model and the oleic acid-induced HepG2 cells. CONCLUSION: Based on the above results, we deduced that CA could reduce body weight and fat deposition in vitro and in vivo and that the mechanism may be related to the PGC-1α/UCP-1 pathway. CA can be developed as a drug to lower blood lipids and to treat obesity.