Pharmacology Dexamethasone

Posted by: @benzol00

What is the mechanism of action of dexamethasone?

Dexamethasone is a member of a group of moderately effective drugs called corticosteroids. Therefore, it possesses a mechanism of action that is common to these agents.

This group of drugs works by stimulating gene expression through the activation of certain transcription factors, that is, since transcription is the process of copying a template of the genetic code printed on DNA [genetic code] into a copy of mRNA, which then travels outside the nucleus and attaches to the ribosome on a rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER), this process of action of transcription factors leads to the synthesis of specific proteins.

@Benzol00 is an agonist of the glucocorticoid receptors, because it is a glucocorticoid. In result the activated GR complex (ligand and target) up-regulates the expression of anti-inflammatory proteins in the nucleus or represses the expression of pro-inflammatory proteins 🙂 

@morphism How fast is gene expression?

@benzol00 Usually steroids take from several hours to several days, gene expression does not occur immediately.

@ekaterina-gribacheva @morphism Thanks)

@benzol00 from one minute to 40 minutes, that's up to a cell's behavior

@morphism Yes, it really depends on the behavior of the cell, but it can also take several days. This cannot happen so quickly)