Steroid Hormone Receptors and p53 in Cancer

Dear Colleagues,

Steroid hormones such as estrogen, androgen, progestogens, glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids, along with their cognate receptors, play important roles in normal and pathological human physiology including the onset and progression of various cancers. The ligands can be agonists or antagonists, activating or repressing, respectively, various functions of these receptors. Besides binding the respective ligands, the receptors interact with various proteins, dependent or independent of hormone binding, enabling them to regulate multitude of cellular functions. 

TP53 is a major tumor suppressor that is inactivated in more than half of all cancers.  Besides mutational inactivation resulting in loss of tumor suppressor activity, certain missense mutations in p53 can lead to gain of oncogenic functions. Interaction of both wild type and mutant p53 with multiple protein partners form the basis of the extensive array of functions regulated by p53.

Various steroid hormone receptors partner with p53 to regulate multiple signaling pathways. Although functional analyses of steroid hormone receptors and p53 have been intensively pursued in separate tracks for the past several years, the importance of crosstalk between them in regulating various cellular functions has started getting appreciated more recently.  This Special Issue in Cells will focus on multiple aspects of the importance of partnership between steroid hormone receptors and p53 in various cancers and its therapeutic implications.

Guest Editors
Dr. Gokul Das

• Steroid hormones
• Steroid hormone receptors
• Cancer
• Tumor suppressor
• TP53
• Mutant p53
• Signaling crosstalk