Gender-Specific Drugs Are Coming

Conventional medical wisdom holds that a virus, bacteria or, in short, any pathogen acts the same way once in the human body, regardless of whether the host is a man or a woman. The development parameters and the incubation periods are roughly the same, and the specific hormones that chemically differentiate males from females are thought to play no significant part in the onset of a condition. However, a growing current in the international medical community advocates deeper research into the matter, despite the political sensitivity of the subject.

For example, hormone specialist Bruce S. McEwen, from the Rockefeller University, who has spent the last 40 years analyzing the effects of hormones on brain chemistry and the nervous system, believes that developing personal medicine is the future of the field. In other words, he argues that men and women need different types of the same drug, in order for the effect to be optimal. He details his beliefs in the upcoming issue of the journal Physiology and Behavior, making sure not to step on any toes in the process.

McEwen says that the new path of research is not meant to deepen the perception gap between males and females, or to discriminate either category, but simply a method of finding out a more efficient way of treating the same condition in two different environments, each with its specific hormone concentrations.

“It’s amazing how ignorant people are about this. Medicine is clueless as to how males and females really differ from one another. They have a very mechanistic view of disease and they tend to think it always works the same way in both sexes. That can be dangerous,” he explains.

The researcher, who is also the head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at RU, also maintains that the role of the hormones in the brain was not fully assessed until the 1960s, and that the old vision, according to which chemicals in the body play little role in influencing the brain and the nervous system, is wrong and obsolete, and that a new batch of studies are required for up-to-date information on the topic.

“Females aren’t males and it’s really important to understand the differences. It is important to recognize that the female brain acts differently. It may be abstract now, because it’s a basic science question, but once we understand hormones in a healthy brain we can go on to understand what changes when the brain is diseased or needs to be treated with drugs,” Elizabeth Waters, who is a postdoctoral student in the researcher's lab, adds.

“I feel like this critical gap in knowledge is hindering our moving forward and developing better drugs for the clinic. We do a disservice to everyone by not being able to treat women, as well as men, as effectively as possible,” she concludes.