Designer contraceptive pills.
The present world population of 5.6 billion is projected to reach 9 billion by the year 2025. Overpopulation remains one of the overwhelming issues of the 21st century, but only limited effort and resources have been allocated to designing new contraceptives, as evidenced by the diminished interest of the pharmaceutical industry and funding agencies. Major advances have been made recently in our understanding of the genetic basis of an individual's risk to various reproductive cancers and sex steroid-related diseases. It has also become apparent that agonistic and antagonistic analogues of sex steroids with tissue-specific actions can be formulated. These new insights provide the opportunity to develop the next generation of 'designer' contraceptive pills with disease-prevention benefits.
Hsueh
A J
AJ
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Stanford University, CA 94305-5317, USA.
D003278:Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal / Q000009:adverse effects; D003280:Contraceptives, Oral, Synthetic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015195:Drug Design; D005260:Female; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000517:prevention & control; D013256:Steroids / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000819:agonists / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D003278:Contraceptives, Oral, Hormonal; D003280:Contraceptives, Oral, Synthetic; D013256:Steroids