Androgen Deprivation Therapy in Patients With Prostate Cancer Increases Serum Levels of Thromboxane A: Cardiovascular Implications.

Androgens have been described as important players in the regulation of vascular function/structure through their action on the release and effect of vasoactive factors, such as prostanoids. Patients with prostate cancer (PCa) under androgen deprivation therapies (ADTs) present increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Since thromboxane A (TXA) is one of the most studied prostanoids and its involvement in different cardiovascular diseases has been described, the aim of this study was to investigate: (i) the effect of ADT on the serum levels of TXA in PCa patients and its possible link to the redox status and (ii) the effect of the non-hydrolyzable TXA analog U-46619 on the function of the aorta of male rats.

Effects of tadalafil once daily or on demand versus placebo on time to recovery of erectile function in patients after bilateral nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy.

Purpose: We report time to erectile function (EF)-recovery data from a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled trial evaluating tadalafil started after bilateral nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy (nsRP).

Methods: Patients ≤68 years were randomized post-nsRP 1:1:1 to 9-month double-blind treatment (DBT) with tadalafil 5 mg once daily (OaD), 20 mg tadalafil on demand ("pro-re-nata"; PRN), or placebo, followed by 6-week drug-free washout (DFW) and 3-month open-label OaD treatment. Secondary outcome measures included Kaplan-Meier estimates of time to EF-recovery (IIEF-EF ≥ 22) during DBT (Cox proportional hazard model adjusting for treatment, age, and country).

Short communication: RNASEL alleles and susceptibility to infection by human retroviruses and hepatitis viruses.

RNASEL seems to function as an intracellular restriction factor blocking the establishment of infections caused by viral agents. Herein, we investigated whether allelic variants at the RNASEL gene might influence the susceptibility to viral infections or conditions potentially linked to viral agents. The allelic distribution at codon 462 was 139 (33.

Immunoreactivity to caspase-3, caspase-7, caspase-8, and caspase-9 forms is frequently lost in human prostate tumors.

Caspases are essential initiators and executioners of apoptosis. Changes in their expression may contribute to the development of proliferative disorders such as cancer, by altering the death-proliferation homeostatic balance. The aim of this work was to analyze the expression of a broad panel of caspases at the epithelial level in human prostate tissues to assess possible prostatic disease-related alterations.