Prednisone | EPFL Graph Search

Prednisone is a glucocorticoid medication mostly used to suppress the immune system and decrease inflammation in conditions such as asthma, COPD, and rheumatologic diseases. It is also used to treat high blood calcium due to cancer and adrenal insufficiency along with other steroids. It is taken by mouth. Common side effects with long-term use include cataracts, bone loss, easy bruising, muscle weakness, and thrush. Other side effects include weight gain, swelling, high blood sugar, increased risk of infection, and psychosis. It is generally considered safe in pregnancy and low doses appear to be safe when breastfeeding. After prolonged use, prednisone needs to be stopped gradually. Prednisone is a prodrug and must be converted to prednisolone by the liver before it becomes active. Prednisolone then binds to glucocorticoid receptors, activating them and triggering changes in gene expression. Prednisone was patented in 1954 and approved for medical use in the United States in 1955. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 30th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 19 million prescriptions. Prednisone is used for many different autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions, including asthma, gout, COPD, CIDP, rheumatic disorders, allergic disorders, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, adrenocortical insufficiency, hypercalcemia due to cancer, thyroiditis, laryngitis, severe tuberculosis, hives, eczema, lipid pneumonitis, pericarditis, multiple sclerosis, nephrotic syndrome, sarcoidosis, to relieve the effects of shingles, lupus, myasthenia gravis, poison oak exposure, Ménière's disease, autoimmune hepatitis, giant-cell arteritis, the Herxheimer reaction that is common during the treatment of syphilis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, uveitis, and as part of a drug regimen to prevent rejection after organ transplant.

Programming effects of peripubertal stress on spatial learning

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Stamatina Tzanoulinou, Cristina Marquez Vega

Exposure to adversity during early life can have profound influences on brain function and behavior later in life. The peripubertal period is emerging as an important time-window of susceptibility to stress, with substantial evidence documenting long-term ...

2020

The orphan nuclear receptor LRH-1/NR5a2 critically regulates T cell functions

Kristina Schoonjans

LRH-1 (liver receptor homolog-1/NR5a2) is an orphan nuclear receptor, which regulates glucose and lipid metabolism, as well as intestinal inflammation via the transcriptional control of intestinal glucocorticoid synthesis. Predominantly expressed in epithe ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)2019

Low vagal tone in two rat models of psychopathology involving high or low corticosterone stress responses

Maria del Carmen Sandi Perez, Jocelin Grosse, Damien Sébastien Huzard, Sriparna Ghosal

The two stress-responsive physiological systems, autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis exert complementary and interrelated actions in the organism. Individuals that suffer stress-related psychopathologies frequently ...

2019