Estrogen receptor-Beta activation: a novel approach to prevent or treat ischemic stroke

Stroke is one of the major diseases leading to human death and disability, and prevention and treatment of stroke have become difficult medical problems. A large number of studies have shown that estrogen has significant neuroprotective effect against stroke, but its clinical application has encountered many obstacles. Long-term use of estrogen, especially the activation of estrogen receptor α (ERα) will increase the risk of reproductive system tumors. Recent studies abroad and our previous research have found that activation of estrogen receptor β (ERβ) can significantly alleviate cerebral ischemic injury. In addition, activation of ERβ can also improve the learning and memory abilities of ovariectomized rats. At the same time, ERβ selective agonists lack the ability to stimulate the proliferation of breast or endometrial tissue as compared with estrogen or ERα agonists, so activation of ERβ is expected to be a more safe and effective method for the prevention and treatment of stroke in menopause women. In this paper, we briefly reviewed the neuroprotective effects associated with ERβ signaling pathway in order to provide new ideas and molecular targets for the clinical transformation of estrogen in prevention and treatment against stroke. Key words: Estrogen; Estrogen receptor β; Stroke; Neuroprotection