Etienne-Emile Baulieu, the discoverer of neurosteroids, and a panel of distinguished scientists and clinical researchers exhaustively and critically review all facets of neurosteroids involved in behavior, stress, memory, depression, anxiety, aging of the brain, and neurodegenerative diseases. These contributors illuminate the role of neurosteroids in brain development and plasticity and detail their neuromodulatory influence on GABAA, ionotropic glutamate receptors, acetylcholine receptors, sigma receptors, and calcium channels. Clearly pointing the way toward novel pharmaceutical agents that may be of significant therapeutic value, particularly with regard to aging mental functions, Neurosteroids: A New Regulatory Function in the Nervous System offers neurobiologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, pharmacologists, and geriatricians the first comprehensive, state-of-the-art review of these important bioactive molecules.

Advances in basic biological research have proceeded rapidly in recent years. The fields of molecular genetics and immunology have experienced dramatic breakthroughs, capturing the imagination of both the scientific community and the general public. With less public notice, receptor biology has brought a cascade of new discoveries and insights. The entire science of pharmacology has been virtually rewritten in terms of receptor phenomenology. In particular, the discovery of specific receptors for steroid and protein hormones has been of seminal importance. With this new information, we have advanced our understanding of the mechanism and specifity of hormone action. We can now explain how hormones interact selectively with specific target cells and how hormones alter biochemical events within the target cells. These facts have already impacted on applied problems of clinical medicine, particularly in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and some metabolic diseases. Now, a new and important application of basic receptor biology and chemistry looms ahead. Within a few short years since the discovery of the progesterone receptor, chemists have synthesized molecules with a greater affinity for the receptor than progesterone itself and which, while occupying the receptor, fail to trigger the events which transform a target cell from the unstimulated to the stimulated state. This is the basis of the competitive inhibitory action of the anti-progestational agent, synthesized by the chemists at Roussel Uc1af, Paris, and designated RU 486.

Etienne-Emile Baulieu, the discoverer of neurosteroids, and a panel of distinguished scientists and clinical researchers exhaustively and critically review all facets of neurosteroids involved in behavior, stress, memory, depression, anxiety, aging of the brain, and neurodegenerative diseases. These contributors illuminate the role of neurosteroids in brain development and plasticity and detail their neuromodulatory influence on GABAA, ionotropic glutamate receptors, acetylcholine receptors, sigma receptors, and calcium channels. Clearly pointing the way toward novel pharmaceutical agents that may be of significant therapeutic value, particularly with regard to aging mental functions, Neurosteroids: A New Regulatory Function in the Nervous System offers neurobiologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, pharmacologists, and geriatricians the first comprehensive, state-of-the-art review of these important bioactive molecules.

Endocrinology is a field in which enormous advances have been made in the last decade; the rate of discovery of new hormones, hormone-like molecules, receptors, and mechanisms of action is continually advancing. The development of techniques in immunology and molecular biology has led to the possibility of describing in detail the gene structure of many of the compounds involved in hormonal systems. Remarkable homology has been shown between oncogene products and various components of the endocrine network, leading to the asser tion that deregulation of hormonal function is involved in the generation and/or development of cancer. We now know that the central nervous system is both a target and a production site of many hormonal products, and that hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors and immunopeptides all act through similar mechanisms. The only second messenger known ten years ago was cAMP; today calcium, derivatives of membrane phospholipids, and protein kinases are also known to be mediators of hormone action. The very concept of hormonal systems has been expanded to include not only endocrine secretions but also para- and autohormones and their mechanisms of action; an understanding of their functions will be central to the immediate future of medicine. The discovery of hormonal molecules and endocrine interactions and the subsequent understanding of hormone related pathophysiology has led to the development of new strategies in medical treatment such as fertility control and the management of diabetes.

In der Debatte um RU 486, die "Abtreibungspille," stehen oft weniger medizinische als vielmehr politische oder weltanschauliche Gesichtspunkte im Mittelpunkt. Dies weiss auch Etienne-Emile Baulieu, der den Wirkstoff entdeckt hat. Er weicht der moralischen Diskussion um die Abtreibung nicht aus, doch im Mittelpunkt seines Buches stehen die Etappen der Hormonforschung, die schliesslich zur Entwicklung von RU 486 gefuhrt haben. Leicht nachvollziehbar wird erklart, welchen Einfluss die Hormone auf die Entstehung der Schwangerschaft haben und warum RU 486 zum Schwangerschaftsabbruch fuhrt. Die medizinischen Erfahrungen mit dem Praparat, u.a. aus Frankreich, England und China, werden ausfuhrlich geschildert. Die deutsche Diskussion uber RU 486 fasst Prof. Lauritzen in einem Nachwort zusammen."