{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:03:39Z","timestamp":1785420219094,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,22]],"date-time":"2026-04-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776816000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Soonchunhyang University Research Fund"},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03qjsrb10","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"National Research Foundation of Korea","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/013aysd81","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003725","name":"Ministry of Education, Science and Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RS-2024-00333544"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RS-2024-00333544"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003725","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Ubiquitin-specific protease 13 (USP13) is a deubiquitinating enzyme that stabilizes phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN), a well-established tumor suppressor involved in PI3K\/AKT signaling. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between USP13 immunohistochemical staining intensity and clinicopathological factors associated with prostate cancer progression. USP13 staining was scored as grade 0 (negative), 1 (weak), 2 (moderate), or 3 (strong) in 242 prostate cancer tissues and 22 adjacent non-neoplastic control tissues. Higher USP13 grades were exhibited by adjacent non-neoplastic tissues than prostate carcinoma. In comparison, lower USP13 grades were observed in 88.6% of the neoplastic regions (p &lt; 0.001). No differences in PSA level, Gleason\u2019s score, disease stage, involvement of either the seminal vesicle or lymph nodes, surgical margin positivity, biochemical or clinical recurrence rates, or overall survival statistics were found. Cox proportional hazards modeling showed no significant association between USP13 expression and biochemical recurrence-free survival or overall survival. Kaplan\u2013Meier analysis demonstrated no statistically significant differences in survival outcomes according to USP13 expression, although a descriptive trend was observed. USP13 immunohistochemical staining distinguished malignant prostate tissue from adjacent non-neoplastic tissue in tissue microarrays. However, USP13 expression was not independently associated with pathological aggressiveness or survival outcomes in this cohort.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life16050712","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,22]],"date-time":"2026-04-22T13:44:33Z","timestamp":1776865473000},"page":"712","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["USP13 Downregulation Distinguishes Malignant from Adjacent Non-Neoplastic Prostate Tissue and Suggests Altered PTEN-Related Regulatory Pathways in a Korean Cohort"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4490-3610","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jae Heon","family":"Kim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul 04401, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-8345-6686","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miho","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul 04401, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8882-2492","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kwang Woo","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Bucheon 14584, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6391-557X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Suyeon","family":"Park","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Academic Research Office, Department of Biostatistics, Soonchunhyang University Seoul Hospital, Seoul 04401, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Department of Applied Statistics, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06911, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1697-3336","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eunkyung","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Bucheon 14584, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ahrim","family":"Moon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Bucheon 14584, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yun Seob","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul 04401, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2008.04.013","article-title":"Tenets of PTEN tumor suppression","volume":"133","author":"Salmena","year":"2008","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13375","DOI":"10.1074\/jbc.273.22.13375","article-title":"The tumor suppressor, PTEN\/MMAC1, dephosphorylates the lipid second messenger, phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate","volume":"273","author":"Maehama","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. 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