Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Selective androgen receptor modulator" in English language version.
SARMs are a novel group of compounds developed to selectively augment anabolic effects in muscles and bones, while avoiding undesirable androgenic effects in skin, larynx, and reproductive organs. The majority of these compounds lack the structural functionalities of the original anabolic steroids and are sometimes termed nonsteroidal androgens. It was hoped that these agents could be used in cases where conventional anabolic steroids produced undesirable side-effects, such as virilization in women and prostate hyperplasia in men [67]. Despite the enormous effort that has been expended in the development of selective anabolic agents, the androgenic effect is very hard to remove completely and many of the currently developed SARMs still do have some androgenic activity.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
One of the first synthetic analogs to testosterone prepared by the Noble laureate Ruzicka was 17α-methyltestosterone (Ruzicka et al. 1935).
We have chosen the term selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) after the terminology currently used for similar molecules targeting the estrogen receptor. ... Desired profile of activity of new SARMs: male applications: Selected indications may include glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, androgen replacement in elderly men, HIV-wasting, cancer cachexia, certain anemias, muscular dystrophies, and male contraception.
A SARM for the treatment of hypogonadism or osteoporosis would be an AR agonist in the muscle and bone, with minimal hypertrophic agonist effects in the prostate.
The next invention was that of the first non-steroidal androgen by Dalton et al. [111] in 1998, six decades after the first non-steroidal estrogen [112]. This creates a new class of non-steroidal synthetic androgen, often termed Specific Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARM), a misleading marketing term rather than an accurate pharmacological description [113,114], usurping a speculative but unsound analogy with Specific Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERM). [...] none of the non-steroidal androgens under development [116,117] are marketed by 2021. Yet hope springs eternal for this new attempt to separate anabolic from androgenic properties of androgens to facilitate marketing for muscle wasting and other selective effects of testosterone.
Although development of the first nonsteroidal androgens (17, 18) as candidate selective AR modulators (19) raises hope of resurrecting this defunct term (20), prereceptor activation mechanisms cannot apply to nonsteroidal androgens, and the singular AR lacks a dual drive mechanism of the other paired sex steroid receptors. Consequently, it is not surprising that available knowledge (21) provides only slender hope that this failed, and probably false, dichotomy will now succeed through a renewed search guided by the same in vivo bioassay.
However, a third major quest, for the development of a nonvirilizing androgen ("anabolic steroid") suitable for use in women and children, based on dissociating the virilizing from the anabolic effects of androgens failed comprehensively (36). This failure is now understood as being due to the discovery of a singular androgen receptor (AR) together with the misinterpretation of nonspecific whole animal androgen bioassays employed to distinguish between anabolic and virilizing effects (37). The term "androgen" is used herein for both endogenous and synthetic androgens including references to chemicals named elsewhere as "anabolic steroids," "anabolic-androgenic steroids," or "specific AR modulators" (SARM), which continue to make an obsolete and oxymoronic distinction between virilizing and anabolic effects of androgens where there is no difference (36).
The development of nonsteroidal androgens, marketed as "selective androgen receptor modulators" (SARMs), offers new possibilities for adjuvant pharmacological androgen therapy. In contrast to the full spectrum of androgen effects of testosterone, such SARMs would be pure androgens not subject to tissue-specific activation by aromatization to a corresponding estrogen or to amplification of androgenic potency by 5α-reduction. In this context the endogenous pure androgens nandrolone and DHT can be considered prototype SARMs. SARMs are not the modern embodiment of so-called "anabolic steroids," an outdated term referring to hypothetical but nonexistent non-virilizing androgens targeted exclusively to muscle, a failed concept lacking biological proof of principle (Handelsman 2011).
SARMs are a novel group of compounds developed to selectively augment anabolic effects in muscles and bones, while avoiding undesirable androgenic effects in skin, larynx, and reproductive organs. The majority of these compounds lack the structural functionalities of the original anabolic steroids and are sometimes termed nonsteroidal androgens. It was hoped that these agents could be used in cases where conventional anabolic steroids produced undesirable side-effects, such as virilization in women and prostate hyperplasia in men [67]. Despite the enormous effort that has been expended in the development of selective anabolic agents, the androgenic effect is very hard to remove completely and many of the currently developed SARMs still do have some androgenic activity.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
One of the first synthetic analogs to testosterone prepared by the Noble laureate Ruzicka was 17α-methyltestosterone (Ruzicka et al. 1935).
We have chosen the term selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) after the terminology currently used for similar molecules targeting the estrogen receptor. ... Desired profile of activity of new SARMs: male applications: Selected indications may include glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, androgen replacement in elderly men, HIV-wasting, cancer cachexia, certain anemias, muscular dystrophies, and male contraception.
The next invention was that of the first non-steroidal androgen by Dalton et al. [111] in 1998, six decades after the first non-steroidal estrogen [112]. This creates a new class of non-steroidal synthetic androgen, often termed Specific Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARM), a misleading marketing term rather than an accurate pharmacological description [113,114], usurping a speculative but unsound analogy with Specific Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERM). [...] none of the non-steroidal androgens under development [116,117] are marketed by 2021. Yet hope springs eternal for this new attempt to separate anabolic from androgenic properties of androgens to facilitate marketing for muscle wasting and other selective effects of testosterone.
These features suggest that non-steroidal androgens have potential for development into pharmacologic androgen therapy regimens as tissue-selective mixed or partial androgen agonists ("selective androgen receptor modulators", SARM) (419, 718). Conversely, they are not ideal for androgen replacement therapy where the full spectrum of testosterone effects including aromatization is idealy required, especially for tissues such as the brain (148, 159) and bone (153) where aromatization is a prominent feature of testosterone action.
Although development of the first nonsteroidal androgens (17, 18) as candidate selective AR modulators (19) raises hope of resurrecting this defunct term (20), prereceptor activation mechanisms cannot apply to nonsteroidal androgens, and the singular AR lacks a dual drive mechanism of the other paired sex steroid receptors. Consequently, it is not surprising that available knowledge (21) provides only slender hope that this failed, and probably false, dichotomy will now succeed through a renewed search guided by the same in vivo bioassay.
However, a third major quest, for the development of a nonvirilizing androgen ("anabolic steroid") suitable for use in women and children, based on dissociating the virilizing from the anabolic effects of androgens failed comprehensively (36). This failure is now understood as being due to the discovery of a singular androgen receptor (AR) together with the misinterpretation of nonspecific whole animal androgen bioassays employed to distinguish between anabolic and virilizing effects (37). The term "androgen" is used herein for both endogenous and synthetic androgens including references to chemicals named elsewhere as "anabolic steroids," "anabolic-androgenic steroids," or "specific AR modulators" (SARM), which continue to make an obsolete and oxymoronic distinction between virilizing and anabolic effects of androgens where there is no difference (36).
SARMs are a novel group of compounds developed to selectively augment anabolic effects in muscles and bones, while avoiding undesirable androgenic effects in skin, larynx, and reproductive organs. The majority of these compounds lack the structural functionalities of the original anabolic steroids and are sometimes termed nonsteroidal androgens. It was hoped that these agents could be used in cases where conventional anabolic steroids produced undesirable side-effects, such as virilization in women and prostate hyperplasia in men [67]. Despite the enormous effort that has been expended in the development of selective anabolic agents, the androgenic effect is very hard to remove completely and many of the currently developed SARMs still do have some androgenic activity.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
Sex-specific SARM effects on humans also remain considerably nebulous. SARMs may represent a more tempting option for female recreational use given potential previous tendencies towards less androgenic AAS (i.e. oxandrolone) [103]. Regardless, as the latter still imposes risk for permanent masculinization and hepatotoxicity, SARMs are largely uncharacterized for female-specific impacts.
