Researchers discover molecule that inhibits estrogen

A research team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has discovered a molecule in animal studies that inhibits the action of estrogen. The female hormone estrogen plays a key role in growing, maintaining and repairing reproductive tissues. Estrogen also fuels the development of breast and endometrial cancers. The newly-identified molecule, Kruppel-like transcription factor-15, could lead to new therapies for preventing and treating these cancers and other estrogen-related diseases in humans. It controls the actions of estradiol (the most important form of estrogen) and progesterone in the endometrium by inhibiting the production of MCM2, a protein involved in DNA synthesis. Estradiol and progesterone prepare the uterus for pregnancy, by triggering a series of cell proliferation and cell differentiation events.