Abstract
Approximately 1000 chemicals have been reported to possibly have endocrine disrupting effects, some of which are used in consumer products, such as personal care products (PCPs) and cosmetics. We conducted data integration combined with gene network analysis to: (i) identify causal molecular mechanisms between endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) used in PCPs and breast cancer; and (ii) screen candidate EDCs associated with breast cancer. Among EDCs used in PCPs, four EDCs having correlation with breast cancer were selected, and we curated 27 common interacting genes between those EDCs and breast cancer to perform the gene network analysis. Based on the gene network analysis, ESR1, TP53, NCOA1, AKT1, and BCL6 were found to be key genes to demonstrate the molecular mechanisms of EDCs in the development of breast cancer. Using GeneMANIA, we additionally predicted 20 genes which could interact with the 27 common genes. In total, 47 genes combining the common and predicted genes were functionally grouped with the gene ontology and KEGG pathway terms. With those genes, we finally screened candidate EDCs for their potential to increase breast cancer risk. This study highlights that our approach can provide insights to understand mechanisms of breast cancer and identify potential EDCs which are in association with breast cancer.
Highlights
The rapid growth of the chemical industry and technology has led to the production of a huge amount of synthetic chemicals over the last century
Six endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs): caffeine, apigenin, captan, diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), and lindane, were selected. These were curated by comparative toxicogenomics database (CTD) as either correlates with breast cancer or because they may play a role in the etiology of breast cancer
We aimed to identify the molecular linkages between the EDCs used in personal care products (PCPs) and cosmetics and the development of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer
Summary
The rapid growth of the chemical industry and technology has led to the production of a huge amount of synthetic chemicals over the last century. There have been studies that have indicated that commercially produced synthetic chemicals can impede the actions of hormones [4] and may lead to adverse health effects, e.g., infertility, cancerous tumors, and birth defects [5]. These chemical pollutants are well known to be endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and their extensive distribution in the environment and in humans has emerged as a significant worldwide issue [6,7].
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