The Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, simply abbreviated as (HCG) is a protein hormone that is produced during pregnancy. The embryo secrets these hormone immediately after conception and later on, the placenta produces it from its part called syncytiotrophoblast after its formation (Cutillo, 2012). This hormone can be isolate and purified from urine to manufacture a drug that can be used in the treatment of breast cancer.
The HCG hormone plays an important role in the prevention of the corpus luteum of the ovaries from disintegrating. The importance of this role is maintaining the production of progesterone production levels that are useful during pregnancy in human beings. Apart from HGC helping in the determination and maintenance of pregnancy, it also affects the immune tolerance of the pregnancy.
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"HCG and Breast Cancer".
As mentioned earlier, the HCG is a placental hormone responsible for progesterone secretion stimulation during stimulation. The hormone is a glycoprotein with the contents of disulfide heterodimers. It has alpha and better chains that are specific to their individual G-protein linked receptors (Cutillo, 2012). The selenomethionine protein is used to determine the structure of the HCG hormone by the use of partial deglycosylation process. The process is carried out through a Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction (MAD) resolution. The alpha and beta chains are identical with a similarity in their tertiary folds. Additionally, each alpha and beta subunits have cysteine-knot motif directly at the core of its extended hairpin loops.
There is an extensive beta subunit, with the two inter-chains of beta sheets and one unique disulfide protein forming an interface joining the alpha subunit. The beta-subunit contains a carboxyl-terminal peptide that contains O-linked sugars. The structural and sequence appearance of the HCG development homology is between the cystine-knot proteins and the chains of glycoprotein hormone (Cutillo, 2012). On one side of the HCG, there are segments of the alpha and beta chains that are incorporated as the binder receptors. Close to the binding site of the alpha and beta chains, there is a glycosylation site where coupling takes place between ligand binding and signaling. The glycosylation site is associated with signaling.
The HCG hormone has microheterogeneity and heterogeneous properties. The microheterogeneity property of the HCG hormone is in regard to its sialic acid contents. The acid contents influence glycoprotein mobility. The intact HCG molecule has the properties of different mobility with different glycoprotein desalination degree. The sialic acid content does not affect the beta-subunit of the HCG. This beta-subunit characteristic is important, especially when semi-quantifying the HCG total. When using a reserve phase in the HCG quantification, it is practically impossible because the glycoprotein is eluted at different retention timed into multiple fractions. To identify a denatured HCG, the process is carried out using an immunoblotting experiment. Immunoassay experimental technique would fail to detect the presence of HCG in any of the multiple glycoprotein fractions.
HCG hormone is also found in the urine of some cancer patients. Usually, it is found in a number of different forms with clinical importance. Immunoaffinity chromatography is the process used to obtain HCG from pregnancy urine (Lamming, 2010). The process is carried out using an antibody called monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the beta subunit of HCG. This antibody is an anti-HCG that physicians use to purify HCG, as it recognizes the carboxyl-terminal region of the beta subunit. This component is important, as the antibodies responsible for cross-reacting with native hormones would be unique to work with HCG. The improvement of the HCG isolated and purified from urine using this procedure gives a result of 84.18% and a purification factor of 19.78 (Lamming, 2010). Additionally, the specificity action of the HCG gives a result of 9705.36IU/mg. During the methods of isolation and purification, the HCG preparation is usually homogeneous. Molecular masses obtained in these processes for alpha and beta subunits are estimated to 14.6 kDa and 23.g kDa respectively(Lamming, 2010).
Normally, each patient drug has their conditions for storage. In the case of the HCG hormone drug, it is usually stable at room temperatures for about 3 weeks. However, it is important to store the drugs at temperatures below -18°C. When reconstituted, temperatures at 4°C up to seven days are ideal, but when it is for future use, -18°C is recommended. A carrier protein 0.1% HSA, also known as BSA is used for long-term storage. Additionally, the drugs should not be defrosted multiple times.
Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancers affecting individuals in the world today. It is ranked second after lung cancer. Breast cancer affects both genders, both male and female and is more common in females than it is in males. For patients with breast cancer, there are treatments administered including apoptosis. Apoptosis is the process of eliminating dead cells from a patient’s body without releasing any harmful effects (Stoll, 2012). Apoptosis process has shown some significant effects in breast cancer patients as the process has become a significant contributor to acquired or intrinsic resistance to cancer drugs. The apoptosis process may also contribute to the prevention of neoadjuvant chemotherapy responses.
The most appropriate hormone that physicians use to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells for cancer patients is the HCG. The HCG is a property of both cysteine knot growth and glycoprotein hormone family groups (Stoll, 2012). Several independent genes normally perform encoding roles of the beta and alpha subunits. During the first trimester of pregnancy, the levels of the HCG hormone increases exponentially. Later on, there occurs a rapid decline in the levels.
Exposure of the breast cancer cells to some content of purified HCG hormone has shown to reduce the viability of the cells in different breast lobule cell lines (Falato, 2018). The cell viability of HCG in the cell lines correlates with the activation of the HCG together with the luteinizing hormone receptors. Thus, the process of preoperative apoptotic induction of purified HCG in breast cancer cells and chemotherapy process work together to produce positive results. The conjunction process of both chemotherapy and apoptosis improves the pathologic responses of advanced breast cancer disease.
Female steroids greatly affect this disease and that is the reason it is one of the treatable types of cancer by the use of HCG. It is important to note that pregnancy is a protective factor against breast cancer in women, as the HCG hormone mediates the antitumor effect (Stoll, 2012). The hormone imprints a genomic signature in the mammary glands that determine refractory conditions to malignant transformation characterized by cellular differentiation, inhibition of growth and apoptosis. Ectopic expression of the beta subunit is associated with poor prognosis as it has functions that promote tumor growth (Falato, 2018). It is important to note that both the placenta HCG and the Beta HCG which is ectopically expressed usually have opposite effects during tumourigenesis process of the breast. The process of mimicking pregnancy during treatment with HCG is a preventive strategy to breast cancer. For beta subunits of HCG, they are essential for therapy of this disease.
In conclusion, the Human Gonadotropin Hormone (HCG) lays an important role of preventing corpus luteum disintegration during the first trimester of pregnancy. HCG hormone can be isolated and purified to for an anti cancer drug that would reduce the number of breast cancer deaths in the world.
