Insights Into The Carcinogenic Effect of Key Skin Care Ingredients Leading To Breast Cancer: An In-Silico Study

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among all others, prevalent in terms of incidence rates. There is malignancy risk associated with many common skincare ingredients. This study elucidated possible hub genes related to breast cancer provoked by the effect of various chemicals in skin care formulations which were screened through literature. Aluminum chloride, Aluminum chlorohydrate, Dibutyl phthalate, Diethyl phthalate, Di-2- Ethylhexyl phthalate, Methylparaben, propylparaben, Triclosan, octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), and decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) are the 10 chemicals investigated. Xenoestrogens mimic estrogen and interfere with the endocrine system and can disrupt natural hormone synthesis, secretion, transport, and binding. Pathway enrichment of the genes indicated key pathways that are mostly altered in Breast Cancer. One of the most significant pathways common to almost 7 chemicals is Endocrine disruption validating its xenoestrogenic effect while other 3 alter different pathways inducing carcinogenic effect. Taken together, the identification of hub genes, pathway enrichment and literature evidence helped to build a correlation between the chemicals and breast cancer.  Further analysis of docking studies revealed that AKT1 for aluminum chloride, ESR1 for aluminum chlorohydrate and Dibutyl phthalate, PTGS2 and AR for diethyl phthalate, AKT1 for di-2-Ethylhexyl phthalate, PGR for methylparaben, AR and PGR for propylparaben, MMP9 for triclosan and CHEK1 for both decamethylcyclopentasiloxane and octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane has shown greater binding affinity highlighting the significance of these proteins and the potential carcinogenic effect of the skin care ingredients under investigation in this study leading to breast cancer.