PLoS Pathog：滴虫感染引发前列腺癌的机制

华盛顿州立大学研究人员发现了滴虫引发前列腺癌的机制，这项最新研究成果可能有助于开发更好的诊断和治疗方法。研究人员已经发现男性患滴虫病是如何患上前列腺癌的机制，滴虫病是一种可治愈的，但常常被忽视的性传播疾病。早期研究已经提示两种疾病之间的相关性，但这项最新的研究提出更具体的生物机制。华盛顿州立大学分子生物科学学院教授John Alderete说，滴虫寄生激活了一整套蛋白质，这使得蛋白质保持活跃。这就像开启电灯开关一样，如果你不控制光线的亮度，你将会失明。

Alderete和美国华盛顿州立大学和华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校的同事在PLoS Pathogens杂志上发表了这项最新研究成果。毛滴虫病由原生动物寄生虫引起，通常被称为是最常见的可治愈的性传播感染。然而，大多数感染者病没有任何症状，因此常常不会接受治疗。

Alderete说：大多数女性是这种性传播感染疾病的首要感人人群，今年至少有10万妇女感染以及同等数量的男性感染此类疾病。受感染的妇女有妊娠并发症及感染艾滋病病毒的风险更大。受感染的男性有40％的机会会罹患前列腺癌。华盛顿州立大学癌症研究人员Nancy Magnuson对于癌细胞生长的启动蛋白质PIM1是一位专家，相关研究人员确定了该蛋白调控的级联蛋白质是如何导致滴虫性感染疾病发展成为前列腺癌的分子机制。

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002801
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Trichomonosis, a Common Curable STI, and Prostate Carcinogenesis—A Proposed Molecular Mechanism

Siobhan Sutcliffe1, Calvin Neace2, Nancy S. Magnuson2, Raymond Reeves2, J. F. Alderete2*

Trichomonosis, a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the protist Trichomonas vaginalis, has significant public health relevance. The annual incidence is ~8 million women in the United States and 170 million worldwide, with an equal number of infected male partners [1]. Both men and women infected with T. vaginalis are at increased risk for human immunodeficiency virus infection [1]. Recent evidence suggests this STI is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States [2]. There is no immunity to T. vaginalis, and a hallmark of this STI agent is persistence. Most T. vaginalis infections in men are asymptomatic, and few are diagnosed and treated; thus, infections persist. In older, pre-antibiotic era studies, T. vaginalis was frequently found in prostate fluid specimens from asymptomatic male partners of women with trichomonosis, leading to the belief that the prostate might serve as the reservoir for trichomonosis in men [3]. Trichomonosis may cause chronic prostatitis, and researchers have identified trichomonads in the prostatic urethra, glandular lumina, submucosa, and stroma [4] and, more recently, in benign hyperplastic prostatic tissue [3]. They also observed foci of nonspecific acute and chronic inflammation, as well as intraepithelial vacuolization, near trichomonads, leading them to propose that trichomonosis might contribute to prostate carcinogenesis [4].