Endocrine Abstracts

Breast cancer cells may present a number of resistance mechanisms to conventional therapy, and therefore new treatments are under evaluation. The histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDI) valproic acid (VPA) is of particular interest, since having been used for a long time in neurological patients its side-effects and tolerability are well known. We have recently demonstrated that VPA is a powerful antiproliferative agent in estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells. Unfortunately, its...

Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), the specific plasma carrier for sex steroids, regulates hormone bioavailable fraction and estrogen signalling system in breast cancer cells. A common single nucleotide polymorphism in the human SHBG gene results in an amino acid substitution (Asp327Asn), which introduces an additional N-glycosylation site that has been associated with reduced breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. Since wild-type SHBG was demonstrated to interfe...