1. You are working in a pharmaceutical lab and your project is to develop a drug

Question

1. You are working in a pharmaceutical lab and your project is to develop a drug that will treat itchy red skin that occurs as an immune response to poison ivy. All of the current drugs take 2-3 days to fully provide relief. What type of hormonal treatment would you begin studying and why? I don’t want you to research the different hormones associated with the immune system. This is a question about how different classes of hormones act

2. Rodents are a common animal model to study many physiological questions that have direct implications on human health. How might the in utero hormonal profile of rodents make them an inappropriate animal model for human health questions?

3. If I were to go back for another PhD I would study the evolution of animal (vertebrate and invertebrate) hormones. Which class of hormones would be the best to study and why? I don’t want a specific hormone in the answer I want the class of hormones.

Explanation / Answer

1. Reaction to poison ivy is an example of alllergic response. Femal sex hormones estrogen and progesterone is found to be associated with severe allergic reactions. It is beleived to increase the activity of enothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), that produces Nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator. This leads to increased vascular permeability, blood vassel dilation and hence leads to anaphylactic symptoms such as problem in breathing and rashes.

Thus estrogen antagonists can be used to prevent this exacerbated allergic response. Inhibitors can also be used to specifically inhibit the activity of eNOS, to prevent anaphylaxis.

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