Since their discovery, corticosteroids have been widely used in the treatment of several diseases, including asthma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and many other conditions. However, it has been noted that some patients develop undesired side effects or even fail to respond to treatment. The reasons behind this have not yet been fully elucidated. This poses a significant challenge to effective treatment that needs to be addressed urgently. Recent genomic, transcriptomic, and other omics-based approximations have begun to shed light into the genetic factors influencing interindividual variability in corticosteroid efficacy and its side effects. Here, we comprehensively revise the recent literature on corticosteroid response in various critical and chronic diseases, with a focus on omics approaches, and highlight existing knowledge gaps where further investigation is urgently needed.
Keywords: corticosteroids; epigenomics; genomics; glucocorticoids; metabolomics; proteomics; transcriptomics.