molecules Article Binding of Androgen- and Estrogen-Like Flavonoids to Their Cognate (Non)Nuclear Receptors: A Comparison by Computational Prediction Giulia D’Arrigo 1, Eleonora Gianquinto 1, Giulia Rossetti 2,3,4 , Gabriele Cruciani 5, Stefano Lorenzetti 6,* and Francesca Spyrakis 1,* 1 Department of Drug Science and Technology, University of Turin, Via Giuria 9, 10125 Turin, Italy;
[email protected] (G.D.);
[email protected] (E.G.) 2 Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-9) and Institute for Advanced Simulations (IAS-5) “Computational Biomedicine”, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany 3 Jülich Supercomputing Center (JSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany 4 Department of Neurology, RWTH, Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany;
[email protected] 5 Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy;
[email protected] 6 Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Department of Food Safety, Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected] (S.L.);
[email protected] (F.S.) Abstract: Flavonoids are plant bioactives that are recognized as hormone-like polyphenols because of Citation: D’Arrigo, G.; Gianquinto, their similarity to the endogenous sex steroids 17β-estradiol and testosterone, and to their estrogen- E.; Rossetti, G.; Cruciani, G.; and androgen-like activity. Most efforts to verify flavonoid binding to nuclear receptors (NRs) and Lorenzetti, S.; Spyrakis, F. Binding of explain their action have been focused on ERα, while less attention has been paid to other nuclear Androgen- and Estrogen-Like and non-nuclear membrane androgen and estrogen receptors. Here, we investigate six flavonoids Flavonoids to Their Cognate (apigenin, genistein, luteolin, naringenin, quercetin, and resveratrol) that are widely present in fruits (Non)Nuclear Receptors: A and vegetables, and often used as replacement therapy in menopause.