This document discusses intracellular receptors as drug targets. It focuses on the estrogen receptor. Intracellular receptors contain zinc fingers that allow interactions with zinc and DNA binding. Their mechanism involves a messenger crossing the cell membrane and binding to the receptor. The receptor then dimerizes and binds to co-activator proteins before binding to DNA to regulate transcription. The estrogen receptor binds the messenger estradiol in its binding pocket through important phenol and alcohol groups on estradiol. Antagonists like raloxifene and tamoxifen mimic estradiol's binding but prevent the receptor from adopting a conformation that recruits co-activators and promotes transcription.