Recent Knowledge and New Pharmaceutical Products in Potential Alleviation of Endometriosis

Simon      Vassiliadis; Irene      Athanassakis

Abstract

Endometriosis is so far considered as an incurable inflammatory disease. The ectopical implants of endometrial cells proliferate, increase in size and thereafter bleed following the menstrual cycle. The accumulated blood aggravates the situation by developing into cysts which, depending on the place, size and number, in most cases increase pain. Infertility in endometriosis is related either to mechanical distortion of the reproductive truck or to various endometriosis-induced factors including hormones, cytokines and chemokines. Except from the anti-inflammatory treatments and gonadotropinreleasing hormone agonists that have been used for a long time to relief from pain, new treatments are targeted against either hormonal-mediated cell growth via inhibition of the metabolic pathway of estrogens and androgens or vascularization or even implantation of the endometrial engraftment. Thus, the role of selective estrogen, androgen or progesterone receptor modulators, aromatase inhibitors, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and extracellular matrix modulators is reviewed. This article also reviewed recent patents related to the field.

Keywords: Endometriosis, estrogen receptor agonists, androgen receptor agonists, VEGF receptor inhibitors, cytokines, immune system

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