Hormone mimicry

McKinney JD, Waller CL. Molecular determinants of hormone mimicry Halo-genated aromatic hydrocarbon environmental agents. Toxicol Environ Health B Crit Rev 1998 1 27-58. 

Hughes, C.L. (1988). Phytochemical mimicry of reproductive hormones and modulation of herbivore fertility by phytoestrogens. Environ. Health Perspectives, 78, 171-174. 

The possibility that parasites can synthesise host or host-like antigens raises the question of whether or not parasites can make use of mRNA to synthesise host protein (799) or whether putative molecular mimicry may actually represent cases of host capture by parasites via natural transfection (perhaps by retroviruses ) - a hypothesis reviewed in detail by Howell (338). It has been pointed out earlier (Chapter 8) that there is evidence to suggest that this may have occurred in the sparganum of Spirometra mansonoides, which is capable of synthesising a growth factor with properties resembling those of a mammalian growth hormone (Tables 8.8 (p. 218) and 8.9 (p. 219)). 

Oral contraceptives have been used widely by women since the 1960s and most contraceptive pills contain various ratios of estrogenic and progestomi-metic substances. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has evolved considerably in the composition and doses utilized in the treatment of postmenopausal women, during the past four decades. While pharmaceutical compounds exhibiting estrogen mimicry are structurally diverse, they share common properties such as their retention in body fat deposits, their ability to cross the placental barrier, their transport in blood usually bound to serum proteins, and their affinity for the estrogen receptor protein. 

Finally, we shall emphasize the successful developments of retro-in-verso (all-D-retro) and end group-modified retro-inverso peptides in several biological areas including hormones [104,105], antibody recognition [106-109], peptide vaccines [110], MHC class II presentation [111,112], protein surface and receptor mimicry [113-115], antibacterial and channel-forming peptides such as mellitin and cecropin A [116,117], intracellular delivery systems [118], and nuclear import [119]. 

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