ELUCIDATION OF NATURAL COMPOUNDS INTERFERING WITH HASHIMOTO’S THYROIDITIS MEDIATED INDUCTION OF BREAST CANCER

Abstract

Breast cancer accounts up to 25% of cases of worldwide cancers and there exist several causes which lead to manifestation of breast cancer. Women suffering from thyroid autoimmunity, particularly Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, have a greater propensity to develop breast cancer, of the ER positive subtype. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis causes hypothyroidism, which increases levels of free estradiol in the body and increased free estradiol is correlated with greater chance of developing breast cancer. Several FDA approved drugs, which are synthetic formulations, are approved for treatment of breast cancer, but there are observed side effects including development of autoimmune disorders. The risk of developing multiple autoimmune syndrome in patients already suffering from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis is too great. Thus, natural compounds are needed as inhibitors of various pathways of breast cancer. Pharmacophore modelling of FDA approved drugs was performed to obtain natural compounds with similar structures and docking analysis was done against the target receptors. Anisotine obtained from Justicia adhatoda was observed to be the lead compound in this study. Justicia adhatoda, also known as Malabar nut is being used in Indian traditional medicine for thousands of years, so anisotine can most likely be well tolerated by the body without any side effects and be used as a possible replacement for several drugs for treating patients of breast cancer already suffering from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.