(Health Korea News / Soon-Ho Lee) HK InnoN appears to be interested in developing a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia based on natural ingredients. It has already been confirmed through animal testing that it has an effect comparable to that of finasteride (original product name: Proscar). Treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia are often taken for a long period of time, but the natural ingredients that HK Innoen is interested in are shown to have excellent safety, so attention is being paid to whether the company will begin developing them as treatments.
The international academic journal ‘Veterinary medicine and science’ recently published a research paper titled ‘Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) extract improves testosterone propionate-induced benign prostatic hyperplasia in male Sprague-Dawley rats.’ Posted.
This study is the first to show that benign prostatic hyperplasia can be alleviated by suppressing androgen-related proteins using purslane. It was carried out in collaboration with Hub, Yeungnam University Hospital, and Kyungpook National University Department of Veterinary Medicine. Among these, HK Innoen is the only pharmaceutical company, so when the development of treatments begins in earnest in the future, HK Innoen is expected to take on that role.
Purslane is an annual herb belonging to the Purslane family of the Asteraceae order, and is a plant with fleshy leaves that commonly grows throughout Korea. The young shoots are edible, and the whole plant is also used for medicinal purposes. Purslane, known as the ‘global panacea’, was previously mentioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the most widely used medicinal herbs.
It is rich in pectin, protein, carbohydrates, unsaturated fatty acids, iron, copper, potassium, calcium and melatonin, so various studies have been conducted on its antioxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective and anticancer properties. However, the research team explains that this is the first study to confirm the efficacy of treating benign prostatic hyperplasia.
The researchers administered finasteride 10mg/kg (N=7) or purslane extract 25mg/kg and 50mg/kg to a benign prostate rat model and evaluated the effectiveness and safety. As a result, in the group administered purslane extract, symptoms of prostate enlargement and the proportion of prostate weight in total body weight (PW/BW) decreased in a dose-dependent manner.
Unlike finasteride, which showed statistical significance in both the prostatic hypertrophy and PW/BW reduction effects, purslane extract showed statistical significance only in the prostate hypertrophy reduction effect. However, the difference in PW/BW reduction between finasteride and purslane extract was not very large.
The researchers also investigated the concentration of DHT in the serum to determine the degree of imbalance between testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which are key factors in benign prostatic hyperplasia. The decrease in DHT in the purslane extract group was smaller than that of the finasteride group, but the difference was minimal. did it
The expression of androgen receptor (AR) was significantly decreased in both the purslane extract and finasteride groups. Androgen receptors are more expressed in patients with benign and malignant prostate diseases. This means that the onset of benign prostatic hyperplasia is not unrelated to the expression of androgen receptors.
This phenomenon was also observed in the expression of SRD5A2 in prostate tissue, and the expression of SRD5A2 (steroid 5-alpha reductase type II) was significantly reduced in both test groups.
In addition, the thickness of prostatic epithelial tissue, one of the indicators of benign prostatic hypertrophy, was significantly decreased in the purslane extract and finasteride groups.
The researchers said, “This study suggests that purslane extract can alleviate benign prostatic hyperplasia by inhibiting AR and SRD5A2. In particular, purslane extract is not toxic regardless of the extraction method, so long-term administration is unlikely to cause side effects in future experiments.” “There is no possibility of this happening,” he explained.
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