Solute carrier family 45 member 3 (SLC45A3), also known as prostate cancer-associated protein 6 or prostein, is a protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 that in humans is encoded by the SLC45A3 gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

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SLC45A3 is expressed in a prostate-specific manner by normal tissues and at a significantly lower level in prostate tumor cell lines. Treatment prostate cancer cell lines with androgen

Androgen

Androgen, also called androgenic hormone or testoid, is the generic term for any natural or synthetic compound, usually a steroid hormone, that stimulates or controls the development and maintenance of male characteristics in vertebrates by binding to androgen receptors...

s upregulates the expression of SLC45A3.

Regulation

There is evidence that the expression of SLC45A3 is regulated by the microRNA mir-126*

Mir-126

In molecular biology mir-126 is a short non-coding RNA molecule. MicroRNAs function to regulate the expression levels of other genes by several pre- and post-transcription mechanisms...

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