良性前列腺增生（BPH）和早期前列腺癌（PC）具有相似的症状，使得区分这两种情况变得具有挑战性。本研究使用了加权基因共表达网络分析方法和两种机器学习策略，基于来自922个样本的整合转录组数据，鉴定了BPH特异性生物标志物。共鉴定出了8个预后相关基因（ALCAM，COL6A2，CRISP2，FOXF2，IGF1，PTN，SCN7A和UAP1），具有高准确性和特异性的BPH特异性生物标志物。此外，我们构建了一个由七个基因组成的诊断分类器来区分BPH和PC。浆细胞样树突状细胞和中性粒细胞的浸润在BPH组和非BPH组之间显示出明显差异。此外，熊果酸可以逆转与BPH发生和进展相关的转录特征。体内外实验证实，熊果酸诱导BPH细胞凋亡，通过促进细胞周期S期阻滞抑制细胞增殖。本研究探讨的诊断生物标志物、微环境特征和熊果酸的治疗效果为BPH提供了新的诊断和治疗策略。© 作者。

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and early-stage prostate cancer (PC) have similar symptoms, making it challenging to differentially diagnose these two conditions. The study used Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network Analysis, as well as two machine learning strategies to identify BPH-specific biomarkers based on an integrated transcriptome data from 922 samples. Eight prognostic genes (ALCAM, COL6A2, CRISP2, FOXF2, IGF1, PTN, SCN7A, and UAP1) were identified to be BPH-specific biomarkers with high accuracy and specificity. Moreover, we constructed a seven-gene diagnostic classifier to distinguish BPH from PC. The infiltrations of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and neutrophil cells showed distinct differences between BPH and non-BPH groups. Additionally, ursolic acid can reverse transcriptional features associated with the occurrence and progression of BPH. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have confirmed that it induces apoptosis of BPH cells and inhibits cell proliferation by promoting cell cycle S-phase arrest. The diagnostic biomarkers, microenvironment characteristics, and therapeutic effect of ursolic acid explored in this study offer new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for BPH.© The author(s).