Next generation GnRH antagonist

An autoimmune disease occurs when the immune system attacks and destroys healthy tissue by mistake. There are around 100 types of autoimmune diseases, which strike three times as many women as men. While one in 69 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, as many as one in 9 women of childbearing years will be diagnosed with an autoimmune illness. The treatment is typically immunosuppression. However, due to lack of novel targets, and the chronic nature of autoimmune diseases, patients experience a slowly diminishing effect of available drugs. There is thus a huge medical need for drugs with novel targets for this patient group. Dr. Anita S. Kåss and colleagues have discovered that using GnRH antagonists has very good effects in patients with various autoimmune diseases. The GnRH antagonists are today used in conjunction with in-vitro fertilization and prostate cancer where the goal is sex hormone suppression. The FORNY project aims to develop a new class of GnRH antagonists with a side-effect profile suited for chronic use.