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Chemical biology

A degrading solution to pollution

Environmental pollutants such as dioxins affect human health. It now seems that dioxins exert their effect by forming atypical enzyme complexes that mediate the breakdown of steroid-hormone receptors.

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Figure 1: Dioxins and the degradation of the oestrogen receptor (ERα).

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Harper, J. A degrading solution to pollution. Nature 446, 499–500 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/446499a

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