Epigenetic Effects of Finasteride on Dopaminergic Signaling Pathways: A potential contributor to Post-Finasteride Syndrome

Dopamine, a widely-distributed neurotransmitter in the brain and elsewhere, is important for regulating reward-motivated behavior, sexual impetus, concentration, pleasure, emotions, and genital arousal. Findings have previously implicated aberrant dopaminergic neurotransmission in mental disorders, as well as sexual and erectile dysfunction. To evaluate the epigenetic effects of finasteride on dopaminergic signaling pathways, we treated human Leydig cells with finasteride and identified several dopaminergic pathways that were altered by differential methylation of component genes. These genes included those involved in the regulation of dopamine secretion and transport (OR56A4, OR13F1 and SYT4), the Phospholipase C-activating dopamine receptor signaling pathway (OR56A4 and OR13F1), the dopaminergic synapse (CALML4, COMT, GNAI2, GNAS, GNG10, GRIA1, GSK3A, GSK3B, KCNJ9, PPP2R2C, PPP2R3B, PPP2R3C, PPP2R5A, PPP2R5E) and the dopamine receptor activity and binding pathway (OR56A4, OR13F1). This alteration of gene methylation suggests a potential role of altered epigenetic regulation of dopaminergic pathways in the etiology and pathophysiology of post-finasteride syndrome (PFS), which should be further investigated. National Institutes of Health (NIH) R25 Resource Grant (1 R25 AG047843-01) to ABC. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.