ArticleNature communications2025
A bypass gateway from cholesterol to sex steroid biosynthesis circumnavigates CYP17A1.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Isoleucine and valine promote prostate cancer progression via propionyl-CoA-mediated cholesterol metabolism.Nature metabolism · 2026Article
- Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Signatures of Fat Deposition Following Orchiectomy in Yak.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Serendipity, steroids and science.The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology · 2026Review
- Androgen metabolism in prostate cancer: recent advances.Endocrinology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Biosynthesis of all androgens and estrogens from cholesterol requires CYP11A1 and CYP17A1. There is no known pathway in humans or other vertebrates that circumvents CYP17A1 for androgen or estrogen biosynthesis in physiology or disease. However, CYP17A1 inhibition cannot completely inhibit androgen biosynthesis in prostate cancer. Here, we identify a surprising role for CYP51 in androgen biosynthesis that bypasses the requirement for CYP17A1. We find that an oxysterol is converted to androgens, which we confirmed with synthesis of a deuterium-labeled oxysterol precursor. Of 57 human cytochrome P450 enzymes tested, only CYP51A1 is capable of circumventing CYP17A1. Genetic studies using stable isotope tracing demonstrate that CYP51A1 is essential for biosynthesis of
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