NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - French scientists may have identified a new approach to the treatment of prostate cancer.

In the June 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Natalia Prevarskaya and colleagues at INSERM in Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, point out that alpha-1-adrenergic receptor antagonists are commonly given in benign prostatic hyperplasia, because they act directly on alpha-1-adrenergic receptors in prostatic smooth muscle. According to the researchers, recent studies have shown that these agents also induce apoptosis in human prostate cancer epithelial cells and smooth muscle cells.

"While this finding is apparently very promising," the authors note, "the mechanism of apoptosis induction in prostate cancer cells [is unclear]."

In experiments in two human prostate cancer epithelial cell models, the researchers were able to identify an alpha-1A subtype of adrenergic receptor and determine how it functions.

They report that in both cell lines -- from primary human prostate cancer and from lymph node carcinoma of the prostate -- "agonist-mediated stimulation of alpha-1A-adrenergic receptors and [diacylglycerol] analogues activated similar cationic membrane currents and calcium influx." They add that the currents were sensitive to treatment with alpha-1-adrenergic receptor antagonists and to transient receptor potential channel blockers.

In addition, they found, chronic activation of the receptors enhanced cell proliferation in the lymph node carcinoma of the prostate cell line.

"All together," the authors conclude, "our findings strongly indicate that the blockade of the alpha-1-adrenergic receptor stimulated intracellular signaling pathway, not only at the receptor level, but also at the level of the affected channel, might be used for the treatment of prostate cancer."

J Clin Invest 2003; 111:1691-1701.

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