Polymorphism of 3β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase-1 in Patients with Prostate Cancer in Middle Euphrates of Iraq

Androgens play critical roles in prostate carcinogenesis as well as prostate cancer progression. Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), which reduces testosterone production and inhibits androgen action in prostate cancer cells, has been the criterion standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer (1). Although initially most prostate cancers respond well to ADT, most patients eventually progress to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is mainly thought to be because androgen receptor reactivation is induced by several mechanisms. One of those mechanisms have been identified to be intratumoral androgen synthesis mostly from adrenal precursor steroids and at least in part due to de novo synthesis from cholesterol which is supported by increased expression of several genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes including HSD3B, HSD17B, and SRD5A in CRPC. Among them, HSD3B1 gene encodes 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1, which is mainly expressed in peripheral tissues including the prostate (another isoform, 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-2 was mainly expressed in adrenal gland and gonad in human) and is a rate-limiting enzyme required for all pathways of dihydrotestosterone synthesis. Genetic polymorphism in HSD3B1 encoding 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1 has been shown to be associated with oncological outcome for prostate cancer. This study to investigate the significance of missense polymorphism in HSD3B1 gene (rs1047303) among men with prostate cancer.