Soy compounds thwart estrogen
By Janet Raloff
From New Orleans, at the e.hormone 2003 Conference
Although soybeans have gained renown as a source of the isoflavones genistein and daidzein, which can mimic the activity of the hormone estrogen, those same compounds occasionally have the opposite effect and block estrogen’s activity. Now, a team of New Orleans researchers reports that a different family of soy isoflavones blocks estrogen even more consistently.
These unusual isoflavones, known as glyceollins, might lead researchers to improved drugs that starve breast cancers of the estrogen that many depend upon, notes research leader Stephen M. Boué of the Agriculture Department’s Southern Regional Research Center.