ABSTRACT
NUCLEAR RECEPTOR SUPERFAMILY Nuclear receptors (also known as nuclear hormone receptors or intracellular receptors) are ligand-regulated transcription factors that regulate expression of genes that are involved in a number of physiological functions, metabolism, development, and reproduction. Nuclear receptors (NRs) represent important drug discovery targets for therapeutic applications in inflammation, cancer, and metabolism. There are 48 genes in the human genome that comprise NR superfamily (1,2) (Table 1). More than 20 of these NRs have been utilized as drug targets. The first NR cloned was human glucocorticoid receptor followed by estrogen receptor, thyroid receptor, and retinoic acid receptor (3-7).
