1. Academic Validation
  2. Comprehensive assessment of estrogenic activities of parabens by in silico approach and in vitro assays

Comprehensive assessment of estrogenic activities of parabens by in silico approach and in vitro assays

  • Sci Total Environ. 2022 Nov 1;845:157194. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157194.
Fang Wei 1 Hefa Cheng 2 Nan Sang 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 College of Environment and Resource, Research Center of Environment and Health, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China; Department of Environmental Engineering, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China.
  • 2 College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
  • 3 College of Environment and Resource, Research Center of Environment and Health, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030006, China. Electronic address: sangnan@sxu.edu.cn.
Abstract

Parabens are ubiquitous pollutants in the environment and humans due to their wide applications in food, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products. Although the estrogenic activity of some parabens has been confirmed, the underlying mechanisms and the structure-estrogenic activity relationship are still largely unclear. Here, we systematically used in silico and in vitro approaches to investigate the estrogenic potency of typical parabens, including methyl-, ethyl-, propyl-, iso-propyl-, butyl-, iso-butyl- and benzyl-paraben. Molecular dynamics simulations and binding free energy calculations were combined to investigate the atomic-level mechanism of paraben binding to estrogen receptors (ERs). Computational analysis showed that ER were the targets of tested parabens and kept a stable agonist conformation. The calculated total binding free energies suggested that van der Waals interactions were the major driving forces for paraben-ER interaction and correlated with the structure of paraben side chains. In in vitro assays, paraben with an aromatic side chain, benzyl-paraben, showed the strongest estrogenic activity at 0.01 μM and the EC50 at 0.796 ± 0.307 μM, on par with levels commonly detected in human organs. Among tested parabens with an alkyl side chain, the estrogenicity increased as the side chain length increased from 1 to 4, but no significant difference appeared between parabens with isomeric alkyl side chains (propyl- vs isopropyl and butyl- vs iso-butylparaben). The estrogenic activity of parabens was significantly related to the calculated binding energies (R2 = 0.94, p = 0.0012), depending on the side chains of parabens. Our findings provide a significant mechanism for parabens to disrupt estrogenic function and considerations for structural optimization from the perspective of environmental protection.

Keywords

Endocrine-disrupting effects; Estrogen receptors; In vitro assays; Molecular dynamics simulations; Parabens.

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