Fundamentals of Steroid Chemistry and Biochemistry

Abstract

Steroids are a unique class of chemical compounds found throughout the animal and plant kingdom. This class includes sterols such as cholesterol and ergosterol, bile acids, and steroid hormones. Chemical research on steroids began with isolation and structure determination, and major research efforts focused on total synthesis and on the development of numerous reactions for modifying the steroid scaffold. Methods in microbial transformations of steroids were developed to produce large quantities of steroid starting materials at reduced costs. Research in steroid biochemistry first began with studies on the biosynthesis and metabolism of steroids, followed soon thereafter by investigations on the biochemical mechanism of action of steroids. Over the past several decades, steroid biochemistry and molecular biology have focused on steroidogenic enzymes, nuclear steroid receptors, and gene expression. The discovery of the anti‐inflammatory effects of cortisone in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and the report of the contraceptive effects of estrogen and progestin preparations illustrated for the first time that steroids could be considered as medicinal agents. As a result, extensive research on the medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and clinical studies of steroid agonists and antagonists has evolved and continues to provide new insights and new medicinal agents for therapies in many different diseases and chemoprevention strategies.

Maturation Inducing Hormones in teleosts: Are progestogens always the first to be nominated?

“…After all, both progestogens, DHP and THP, are 20β-hydroxylated progestins; their only difference resides in the hydroxyl group at the 21 position (Matsuyama et al, 2002). Given that these progestogens are structurally similar and are produced from the same precursor, 17OHP (Brueggemeier and Li, 2010), it is reasonable to expect that the affinities of these progestogens for their receptor might result in strong competition. Due to their low or mild affinities to this MIH receptor, other nonprogestogen MIHs, such as corticosteroids, or nontypical MIHs, such as androgens and estrogen, have been hypothesized to be MIHs less frequently than progestogens (Thomas et al, 2002).…”

Preclinical study using androgen receptor (AR) degradation enhancer to increase radiotherapy efficacy via targeting radiation-increased AR to better suppress prostate cancer progression

“…Recent studies indicated that androgen effects might not be equal to the androgen receptor (AR) effects and ADT with antiandrogens [6] may only reduce the androgen biosynthesis or prevent androgen from binding to AR, with little effect on the AR expression [[7], [8], [9], [10], [11]]. Since more and more data indicated that AR, at the castration concentration (1–2 nM) of androgens, could also be transactivated by various growth factors, cytokines and kinases [[12], [13], [14], [15]], targeting the AR, instead of targeting androgens, may result in better efficacy to further suppress the PCa progression.…”