Characterisation of a novel prostate-expressed kallikrein-like protease and its target proteins

前列腺病是大多数男性晚年的常见疾病，会对他们的生活质量产生不利影响。原发病为良性前列腺增生症或BPH和前列腺癌。在50岁以上的男性中，50%-70%的人会受到BPH症状的影响，前列腺癌现在是男性最常见的内科癌症。更重要的是，前列腺癌是癌症死亡的第二大常见原因。我们还不完全了解这些疾病是如何发生的，但众所周知，男性荷尔蒙或雄激素起着重要作用。前列腺特异性抗原或PSA已被广泛接受为帮助检测前列腺癌并随后监测疾病的有用工具。PSA受雄激素调节，是一种酶，可以激活或分解许多蛋白质，这些蛋白质对前列腺的正常功能和癌症的发展都是重要的。PSA属于一种称为激肽释放酶的酶家族。我们最近发现了这个家族的一个新成员，它和PSA一样，也在前列腺中发现。我们将这种新的酶命名为K6，因为它是这个家族中被鉴定的第六个成员。所以，这个项目是关于这种新的K6酶的特征，找出它是否也存在于患有BPH和前列腺癌的男性的前列腺中，它是否也受到雄激素的调节，以及它在这些疾病中可能激活的是哪种蛋白质。我们还将把这些发现与我们对PSA在这些疾病中所知的情况进行比较。通过这些研究，我们不仅将更多地了解这种K6酶及其在前列腺中的重要性，而且还将了解它与PSA的关系。这些发现可能最终导致在检测和治疗前列腺增生症和前列腺癌方面的一些新方法。

Prostate disease is common in most men in later life and can affect their quality of life adversely. The primary conditions are benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH and prostate cancer. Symptoms of BPH affect between 50-70% of men over the age of 50 and prostate cancer is now the most common internal cancer diagnosed in men. More importantly, prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths. We don't yet fully understand exactly how these diseases occur but the male sex hormones or androgens are known to play an important role. Prostate specific antigen or PSA has become widely accepted as a useful tool in helping to detect prostate cancer and then monitoring the disease. PSA, which is regulated by androgens, is an enzyme that either activates or breaks down many proteins that are important in both the normal function of the prostate and in the development of cancer. PSA belongs to a family of enzymes called the kallikreins. We have recently discovered a new member of this family that, like PSA, is also found in the prostate. We have called this new enzyme, K6, as it is the sixth member of this family to be identified. So , this project is about characterising this new K6 enzyme, finding out if it is also found in the prostates of men with BPH and prostate cancer, whether it is also regulated by androgens and what sort of proteins it may activate in these diseases. We will also compare these findings with what we know about PSA in these diseases. From these studies, we will not only understand more about this K6 enzyme and how it might be important in the prostate but also how it relates to PSA. These findings may ultimately lead to some new approaches in the detection and treatment for BPH and prostate cancer.