The translational aspects of glucocorticoid biorhythmicity in modern therapeutics

Abstract

Glucocorticoids are a class of steroid hormones, vital for mammalian life. They have a plethora of biological effects, mainly supporting metabolic, cognitive, and immunological functions. The pharmacological use of glucocorticoids makes them one of the most frequently prescribed drugs across all continents, and in all types of forms. Nevertheless, a number of serious adverse effects accompany the prolonged treatment with high doses of glucocorticoids. Research developments over the last 20 years have gradually reshaped the way we think about glucocorticoid-based therapeu¬tics. Aside their circadian rhythm and their delayed regulatory influence over an extensive number of sensitive genes, glucocorticoids also possess an underlying, ultradian rhythm, and also exert rapid, non-genomic effects. The notion that chronicity of glucocorticoid stimulation may differentially modulate the type of biological effects of the hormone brings various chronopharmacological concepts on the table of modern glucocorticoid-based therapeutics.