Isoflavones and PPAR Signaling: A Critical Target in Cardiovascular, Metastatic, and Metabolic Disease

Figure 1

The isoflavones: generic 7-hydroxy-benzopyran-4-one ligands for PPARγ. Isoflavones have a B-ring aryl substituent in the 3-position and a Δ^2-3 double bond. Common isoflavones are daidzein (R₅=R₆=R₈=H, R₇=R^′₄=OH, R^′₂=R^′₃=R^′₅=H^′), genistein (R₆=R₈=H; R₅=R₇=R^′₄=OH; R^′₂=R^′₃=R^′₅=H^′), formononetin (R₅=R₆=R₈=H; R₇=OH; R^′₂=R^′₃=R^′₅=H; R^′₄=OCH₃), and biochanin A (R₆=R₈=H; R₅=R₇=OH; R^′₂=R^′₃=R^′₅=H; R^′₄=OCH₃). The chemical library search also showed that the atom at position-3 in the B-ring can be either carbon or nitrogen.