Structurally similar estradiol analogs uniquely alter the regulation of intracellular signaling pathways.

Ligand structure can affect the activation of nuclear receptors, such as estrogen receptors (ERs), and their control of signaling pathways for cellular responses including death and differentiation. We hypothesized that distinct biological functions of similar estradiol (E(2)) analogs could be identified by integrating gene expression patterns obtained from human tumor cell lines with receptor binding and functional data for the purpose of developing compounds for treatment of a variety of diseases. We compared the estrogen receptor subtype selectivity and impact on signaling pathways for three distinct, but structurally similar, analogs of E(2). Modifications in the core structure of E(2) led to pronounced changes in subtype selectivity for estrogen receptors, ER-α or ER-β, along with varying degrees of ER dimerization and activation. While all three E(2) analogs are predominantly ER-β agonists, the cell growth inhibitory activity commonly associated with this class of compounds was detected for only two of the analogs and might be explained by a ligand-specific pattern of gene transcription. Microarray studies using three different human tumor cell lines demonstrated that the analogs distinctly affect the transcription of genes in signaling pathways for chromosome replication, cell death, and oligodendrocyte progenitor cell differentiation. That the E(2) analogs could lower tumor cell viability and stimulate neuronal differentiation confirmed that gene expression data could accurately distinguish biological activity of the E(2) analogs. The findings reported here confirm that cellular responses can be regulated by making key structural alterations to the core structure of endogenous ER ligands.