Figure 1. Hypothesis: effect of botanicals on inflammation-stimulated estrogen chemical carcinogenesis.
Inflammation potentiates estrogen chemical carcinogenesis through activation of transcription factor NF-κB which up-regulates estrogen metabolizing enzyme P450 1B1 that is classically regulated by AhR (figure has been simplified for clarity). P450 1B1 increases the estrogen metabolite 4-OHE1 which redox cycles with the genotoxic estrogen quinone 4-OHE1-Q to form ROS. E2 (not shown for clarity) is similarly metabolized to genotoxic metabolites. The hypothesis is that, to prevent estrogen carcinogenesis, several steps in the inflammation-stimulated estrogen carcinogenesis pathway could be modulated by chemopreventive botanicals, as indicated with green arrows.
