Development of a Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry-Based Inhibition Assay for the Screening of Steroid 5-α Reductase in Human and Fish Cell Lines
February 2021
in “Molecules”

TLDR
A new method was created to test the effectiveness of Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) inhibitors, like finasteride and dutasteride, in human and fish cells. The results showed fish cells are more sensitive to these treatments, and dutasteride works better than finasteride in all tested cells.
The study developed a sensitive method for analyzing Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and a cell-based 5AR (5-alpha reductase) inhibition assay using human and fish cell lines. The assay was used to screen for 5AR inhibitors, with finasteride and dutasteride tested. The IC50 values of these inhibitors were comparable in different systems, but dutasteride had a lower IC50 in fish cell lines than in human ones. The study found that fish cell lines were more sensitive to testosterone treatment than human cell lines, and dutasteride was more potent than finasteride in all cell lines. The results showed a clear difference in steroid metabolism between human and fish cell lines. The study concluded that the assay has high sensitivity and reproducibility and is suitable for application in 5AR inhibition screening for various endocrine disruption chemicals. Future studies will evaluate the inhibitory potency of chemicals for predicting endocrine disruption via a 5AR inhibition assay.
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