Breast Cancer

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Introduction Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in women and 70 percentage of breast cancer is caused by the over expression of Estrogen receptor (ER). ER represents a viable and important pharmaceutical target against cancer. It is targeted by pharmaceutical agents for hormone replacement in menopausal women and reproductive cancers such as prostate cancer, uterine cancer and breast cancer [1]. ERs are classified into two types, ER alpha and ER beta which belongs to the super family of nuclear receptors. ER alpha and ER beta have similar but not identical structures. Up regulation of ER alpha causes cell proliferation, inhibition of apoptosis, stimulation of invasion and metastasis, and promotion of angiogenesis. While not much is known about ER beta, it is believed that its function is distinct from ER alpha and it probably has opposing activity on tumour growth [2]. Tamoxifen is the drug regularly prescribed for the treatment of breast cancer. The anticancer property of Tamoxifen has been attributed to its anti estrogenic properties. The use of Tamoxifen is limited due to the acquired Tamoxifen resistance in many cancer patients [3]. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are drugs which have anti inflammatory action and also used for fever (anti pyretic) and pain reduction. Aspirin is the first NSAIDs used for treating human ailments, which is derived from the bark of the willow tree. NSAIDs act as non selective inhibitors of the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) causing the reduction of the formation of prostaglandin and thromboxane. NSAIDs have recently received increasing attention as anticancer agents. In vivo studies with NSAIDs have shown the anticancer property of these drugs against breast c... ... middle of paper ... ...han ArgusDock [14-15]. Conclusion Molecular docking was used to explore the binding mechanism and to correlate docking score of NSAIDs with the human estrogen alpha receptor (PDB ID: 3ERT) and estrogen related gamma receptor (PDB ID: 2GPU). In the present study, results show that NSAIDs have a good binding energy values with both the ER proteins. Valdecoxib which was withdrawn from the market had shown the good energy values in the optimized NSAIDs. The antagonist action of NSAIDs towards ER could be one of the possible reasons why NSAIDs have anticancer property; further studies need to be done to confirm these properties .The result of our study can be used for the development of NSAIDs as potential inhibitors for estrogen receptors. Acknowledgment This research is carried out independently, no funding whatsoever received for carrying out this work.

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