Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P04179 (MnSOD)
 2,777 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Epidemiologic studies indicate that most risk factors for breast cancer are related to reproductive and hormonal factors. For a number of years, the mechanism for estrogens in carcinogenesis was thought to be that of mitotic stimulation, with the growth promotion of ductal epithelial cells harboring precursor mutations in the breast. However, evidence is now available that estrogens may act as initiators of cellular alterations and tumorigenesis. Investigation and measurement of serum levels of estrogens in epidemiologic studies may, therefore, be misleading, because they may reflect levels quite different from those of hormone metabolites to which the target tissue is exposed. Proportions of hormone metabolites may be estimated by evaluation of associations between breast cancer risk and genetic polymorphisms in enzymes involved in hormone metabolism. A number of molecular epidemiologic studies have been conducted to evaluate associations between polymorphic genes involved in steroid hormone metabolism (i.e., CYP17, COMT, CYP1A1, CYP19, GST, and MnSOD) that may account for a proportion of enzymatic variability, and results are discussed in this review. There are strengths and limitations to such an approach, foremost of which may be the lack of insight into the extent to which individual variability in estrogen exposure may be explained by allelic variation. Variability in other endogenous and exogenous factors that impact parent hormones and their metabolites along activation and conjugation pathways may also affect associations in case-control comparisons. This and other possible reasons for inconsistencies in results of molecular epidemiologic studies are discussed. Contributions from population-based studies and those from the laboratory may together move this field ahead and more clearly elucidate the basis of hormonally related cancers, identifying etiologic factors and susceptible populations for preventive strategies.
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PMID:Molecular epidemiology of genetic polymorphisms in estrogen metabolizing enzymes in human breast cancer. 1096 24

The major known risk factors for female breast cancer are associated with prolonged exposure to increased levels of oestrogen. The predominant theory relates to effects of oestrogen on cell growth. Enhanced cell proliferation, induced either by endogenous or exogenous oestrogens, increases the number of cell divisions and thereby the possibility for mutation. However, current evidence also supports a role for oxidative metabolites, in particular catechol oestrogens, in the initiation of breast cancer. As observed in drug and chemical metabolism, there is considerable interindividual variability (polymorphism) in the conjugation pathways of both oestrogen and catechol oestrogens. These person-to-person differences, which are attributed to polymorphisms in the genes encoding for the respective enzymes, might define subpopulations of women with higher lifetime exposure to hormone-dependent growth promotion, or to cellular damage from particular oestrogens and/or oestrogen metabolites. Such variation could explain a portion of the cancer susceptibility associated with reproductive effects and hormone exposure. In this paper the potential role of polymorphic genes encoding for enzymes involved in oestrogen biosynthesis (CYP17, CYP19, and 17beta-HSD) and conversion of the oestrogen metabolites and their by-products (COMT, CYP1A1, CYP1B1, GSTM1, GSTM3, GSTP1, GSTT1 and MnSOD) in modulating individual susceptibility to breast cancer are reviewed. Although some of these low-penetrance genes appeared as good candidates for risk factors in the etiology of sporadic breast cancer, better designed and considerably larger studies than the majority of the studies conducted so far are evidently needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
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PMID:Molecular epidemiology of sporadic breast cancer. The role of polymorphic genes involved in oestrogen biosynthesis and metabolism. 1288 6

Polymorphisms in genes encoding enzymes involved in estrogen metabolism are held to be candidates for associations with breast disease, since there is evidence that circulating estrogens are associated with breast cancer risk. In this study, we evaluated the frequency of different polymorphisms related with estrogen metabolism [COMT Val158Met, CYP17 (5'UTR, T27C); HSD17beta1 Gly313Ser and MnSOD Val16Ala] in a breast cancer resistant population, the Xavante Indians, and the frequencies were compared with the ones reported in other populations where breast cancer case-control studies dealing with these polymorphisms have been carried out. The data obtained showed that, apart from the MnSOD Val16Ala polymorphism where the frequency of the variant allele was much higher than that reported in other populations, all the others were within the range reported in other populations. Considering these data we carried out a case-control study in the Portuguese population (241 cases and 457 controls) in order to evaluate the potential role of this polymorphism in breast cancer susceptibility. The results obtained did not reveal a significant association between individual genotypes and breast cancer risk. However, when the population was stratified for breast feeding, it was observed that for the patients that never breast fed the presence of the variant allele (Ala) was marginally associated with a decreased risk for this pathology (adjusted OR: 0.575 (0.327-1.011). These data seem to suggest that individuals who never breast fed with MnSOD Val16Ala variant allele are at a lower risk for breast cancer, but larger studies are required to confirm these results.
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PMID:Breast cancer risk and polymorphisms in genes involved in metabolism of estrogens (CYP17, HSD17beta1, COMT and MnSOD): possible protective role of MnSOD gene polymorphism Val/Ala and Ala/Ala in women that never breast fed. 1696 94