Numerous studies have shown that women of childbearing age are at a lower risk than men of contracting a wide range of diseases. A phenomenon attributable to female sex hormones. On the contrary, women are more exposed to autoimmune diseases, where an excessive immune and inflammatory response is among the factors determining their development. The focus at the 15th World Congress on Inflammation
June 16 –
Gender medicine represents a new frontier of medical-scientific research. An approach that takes into account the differences between men and women in the field of health with the aim of providing more and more appropriate and personalized care. From prevention to diagnosis, from symptoms to response to therapies. Being a man or a woman has a specific impact on many clinical aspects, from the incidence to the symptoms up to the course of numerous pathologies, in particular those with an inflammatory basis such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, respiratory, autoimmune diseases and tumors.
This is what Prof.ssa explains Elisabetta Vegeto of the University of Milan, who spoke during the “Sex and Gender Differences” session held during the 15th World Congress on Inflammation (5-8 giugno, Roma)organized by Italian Society of Pharmacology (Sif) e dall’International Association of Inflammation Societies (Iais).
“In recent years, research in the field of gender medicine – says Vegeto – has made a lot of progress: numerous studies have, in fact, shown that women of childbearing age have a lower risk than men of contracting a wide range of diseases, compared to men. including those with an inflammatory basis. I am thinking, for example, of atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative diseases and infections. A phenomenon attributable to female sex hormones that regulate reproductive life and help modulate the inflammatory process and the immune response “.
In the era of personalized medicine, gender differences find their basis in genetic and hormonal factors. Factors that, in fact, also specifically affect the immune system of men and women. In particular, an important role in the regulation of the inflammatory process is entrusted to estrogen, the main female sex hormones, produced starting from puberty throughout the fertile period up to a drastic decline with menopause.
“In general, women have – continues Professor Vegeto – an immune response that is stronger than that of men and this is largely due to estrogens, which are able to contain and modulate the inflammatory process until it accelerates its resolution. It is also thanks to the action of estrogen that women of childbearing age are more protected from certain diseases than men; with menopause and the consequent drop in estrogen, the percentage of women who tend to get sick increases significantly “.
Among the pathologies that show important gender differences we find autoimmune diseases, which mainly affect women. “If usually the greater reactivity – explains Professor Vegeto – of the female immune system compared to the male one has a protective effect, there are cases, however, in which this characteristic can be harmful as in autoimmune diseases, where an excessive type response immune and inflammatory is among the determining factors in the development of these pathologies “.
Estrogen plays a key role in immune hyper-reactivity as welltherefore, it is necessary to develop personalized treatments that are directed against those mechanisms, including those regulated by estrogen, that trigger the disease in different ways between the two genders.
Estrogens are among the ideal candidates for the development of new and innovative therapeutic approaches in the name of ever more personalized medicine.
“To date, numerous studies are underway – he continues – aimed at better understanding the mechanism of action of estrogens in regulating the immune response with the aim of developing precision pharmacological treatments. On the one hand, therapeutic modalities are sought that are able to ‘mimic’ the beneficial immune action of estrogens, for example to prevent atherosclerosis or certain infections; on the other hand, we need drugs that selectively inhibit hormonal action when it becomes unwanted, as in the case of some autoimmune diseases and some cancers ”.
June 16, 2022
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