Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Sci. Signal., 3 November 2009
Vol. 2, Issue 95, p. ec356
[DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.295ec356]

EDITORS' CHOICE

Odorants Smells Like a Hormone?

Elizabeth M. Adler

Science Signaling, AAAS, Washington, DC 20005, USA

Odor perception depends on odorant binding to cell surface odorant receptors [OR, members of a large family of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs)] and the consequent stimulation of intracellular signaling pathways in sensory neurons. Noting that many odorants are small hydrophobic molecules that can permeate cell membranes, Pick et al. wondered whether odorants might also act intracellularly to trigger additional cellular responses. Screening an odorant library revealed that two structurally distinct classes of odorants [methyl 2,4-dihydroxy-3,6-dimethylbenzoate (or MC, for Mousse Cristal) and synthetic sandalwood compounds] stimulated the translocation of a fluorescently tagged form of estrogen receptor {alpha} (ER) from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and decreased its mobility, effects consistent with estrogenic activity. Moreover, both MC and the sandalwood-family odorants Javanol and Polysantol stimulated the ER-dependent transcription of a gene reporter in MCF7 breast cancer cells, as well as MCF7 cell proliferation, as did androstenol (a porcine pheromone with a musk- and sandalwood-like odor). MC also acted as an agonist for the mouse eugenol odorant receptor mOR-EC, stimulating a cAMP-dependent gene reporter as potently as the known mOR-EC ligand eugenol (an odorant in clove oil) did, whereas the sandalwood odorants did not. The authors thus conclude that some odorants can activate both ORs and ERs and, although the estrogenic potency of the odorants was far less than that of 17β-estradiol, noted potential concerns associated with ongoing exposure to compounds with estrogenic activity.

H. Pick, S. Etter, O. Baud, R. Schmauder, L. Bordoli, T. Schwede, H. Vogel, Dual activities of odorants on olfactory and nuclear hormone receptors. J. Biol. Chem. 284, 30547–30555 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: E. M. Adler, Smells Like a Hormone? Sci. Signal. 2, ec356 (2009).

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882