Biological differences between females, males need to be considered in scientific studies

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/tes-bdb030821.php

 

News Release 11-Mar-2021
Endocrine Society issues Scientific Statement on sex differences in research

The Endocrine Society
Biological differences between females and males affect virtually every aspect of medicine and biomedical research. In a new Scientific Statement released today, the Endocrine Society called for sex differences to be studied thoroughly to improve public health.


•••••

For instance, SARS CoV-2 infection, cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, disproportionately affects men. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found the overall case-fatality ratio was about 2.4 times higher in men than women.

Failing to consider sex differences can lead to the failure of promising drug candidates. Drugs are tested in cell lines or animals before drug trials are conducted in humans, and most of these foundational studies rely predominantly on male animals or cell lines. Many published studies that use animal models either do not report the breakdown of animals by sex or do not aggregate results by the sex. Clinical studies similarly fail to consider sex as a variable and instead often report it as a confounding factor.

"Without exploring sex differences, some drug candidates that could be beneficial to women never have the chance to make it to market," Bhargava said. "The process of developing drugs using only males of a species in pre-clinical studies likely contributes to the higher rates of adverse drug reactions in women compared to men, failure to see efficacy in clinical trials, and translation to therapeutics."

•••••