steroid hormones for anti inflammation and immunosuppression

[visceral_instinct]

^Why do you have to give a synthetic hormone?

How come you can't use the patient's own corticosteroids? Like inject them with ACTH so they would produce it by themselves?

Forgive me if I posted something horribly ignorant....I don't know a whole lot about this....I was just thinking about anti inflammatory substances in general as I'm currently suffering from hay fever, and my thought patterns turned to this

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

How come you can't use the patient's own corticosteroids?

How do you propose to extract, isolate and purify corticosteroids from a patient? How much endogenous hormone do you think you could isolate? What do you think the cost of such a treatment would be?

The answers are the reason why synthetic hormones are used.

 

[visceral_instinct]

No no no....I didn't mean isolate it from them...

Like inject them with ACTH so they would produce it by themselves?

I didn't mean take it from their body then re-use it on them, I meant induce them to produce it endogenously.

 

[Idle Mind]

Where are we getting the ACTH from to inject into the patient?

 

[Asguard]

VI i would assume synthetics are used because a) they are more targeted, may well have a stronger effect, require less ect and b) because they are easier to make than to extract. Most things except blood tend to be easier to sythazise rather than extract, adrenilin, morphine, dopamine, insulin ect ect are all sythetic drugs to my knowlage (though i belive that insuline is or was made in pigs rather than made by combining chemicals in a lab)

 

[visceral_instinct]

Ah, thanks Asguard.

 

[Idle Mind]

Insulin is produced in pigs because it is a protein hormone.