A systematic analysis of human hormone receptors

Hormones are important bioactive molecules that regulate the development, function, and homeostasis of tissues/organs via binding to hormone receptors (HRs) in target cells. Although human HRs are essential for both basic research and drug development, a comprehensive analysis of them is still lacking. Here, we present a systematic bioinformatic investigation of all known human HRs, characterizing their genomic distributions, biological functions, subcellular localizations, and expression patterns in various cell types and tissues/organs. We further explored the relationship between HR expression and aging, and identified HRs with aging-associated expression changes. In addition, a thorough analysis of HR-related diseases highlights the extensive involvement of HRs in various pathological conditions, particularly nervous system diseases and cancers. We constructed gender-specific cross-tissue/organ hormone-HR interaction networks, which provided valuable insights into hormone-mediated inter-organ communications. An interactive website was also developed to allow users to explore hormone-HR networks in different tissues/organs. These results revealed new features of human HRs and offered a comprehensive resource for human HR-related studies.