PUBLICATION

Antagonistic mechanisms of bisphenol analogues on the estrogen receptor α in zebrafish embryos: Experimental and computational studies

Authors
Cao, M., Wei, J., Pan, Y., Wang, L., Li, Z., Hu, Y., Liang, Y., Cao, H.
ID
ZDB-PUB-221018-30
Date
2022
Source
The Science of the total environment   857: 159259 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Cao, Mengxi, Liang, Yong
Keywords
Antagonistic activity, Bisphenol analogues, Estrogen receptor, Molecular dynamics simulation, Zebrafish
MeSH Terms
  • Animals
  • Benzhydryl Compounds/metabolism
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha*/metabolism
  • Estrone
  • Phenols/metabolism
  • Zebrafish*/metabolism
PubMed
36220475 Full text @ Sci. Total Environ.
Abstract
Bisphenol A (BPA) can disturb the estrogen receptor α (ERα)-mediated signaling pathway, which results in endocrine-disrupting effects and reproductive toxicity. Most BPA analogues as alternatives were evidenced to generate estrogenic activity as agonists or partial agonists of ERα. Recent studies indicated that certain BPA analogues, such as bisphenol M (BPM), bisphenol P (BPP), and bisphenol FL (BPFL), exhibited strong anti-estrogenic effects comparable with the typical antagonist 4-hydroxytamoxifen. However, conflicting findings were also observed for the compounds in different in vitro assays, and whether these BPA analogues can elicit an in vivo effect on ERα at environmentally relevant concentrations remains unknown. The underlying structural basis of estrogenic/anti-estrogenic activity should be further elucidated at the atomic level. To address these issues, we combined zebrafish-based in vivo and in silico methods to assess the effects of the compounds on ERα. The results show that the expressions of ERα-mediated downstream related genes in zebrafish embryos decreased after exposed to the compounds. Further molecular dynamics simulations were used to probe the antagonistic mechanisms of the compounds on ERα. The key H-bonding interactions were identified as important ligand recognition by ERα in the analysis of binding modes and binding free energy calculations. In summary, the current study provides preliminary in vivo evidence of fish species for the anti-estrogenic activity of certain BPA analogues.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping