Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia

On Friday 29 and Saturday, 30 October 2021, the 2nd ESPE Science Symposium on the topic of Congenital adrenal hyperplasia: from molecular medical research to clinical application was  delivered by Prof. Hedi Claahsen – van der Grinten and her programme organizing committee at Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. After the uncertain COVID 19 period which made the organizers decide to postpone their symposium from October 2020 to October 2021, it was decided to host the symposium completely online.  With excellent speakers, all top scientists in the field of CAH, the online format gave around 200 participants, from around the world, the opportunity to join and to actively participate in inspiring discussions. The organizers welcomed participants from America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Furthermore, 14 young investigators used the opportunity to join the meeting for free.

The symposium consisted of six sessions covering an introduction to CAH, diagnostics, treatment, long term outcomes, research aspects and future perspectives. The speakers discussed many exciting new developments in the field of CAH. The programme can be viewed here. 

Beside the well-known classical androgen pathway, in the past few years the importance of the backdoor pathway and of 11-oxygenated steroids in the pathophysiology and diagnostics of CAH has become clearer. Professor Christa Flück explained the backdoor pathway in more detail and its importance for CAH patients especially in prenatal life. Prof Wiebke Arlt and Professor Richard Auchus described the more recently described 11-oxygenated androgens which are nowadays known as the most important adrenal androgens in CAH patients. An important topic in the CAH symposium  were new treatment modalities such as CRH antagonists presented by Richard Auchus and promising gene therapy, discussed by Leonardo Guasti.  In the session on basic and translational research, four researchers discussed their approaches which included the use of a zebrafish model as presented by Dr. Nils Krone and interesting models to test novel therapeutic interventions discussed by Professor Angela Huebner. Dr. Agustini Utari, pediatric endocrinologist from Indonesia pointed out the special problems and risks for CAH patients in developing countries where a lack of infrastructure, knowledge and medication leads to high morbidity and mortality

One highlight of the symposium was a session about past and future perspectives with two excellent talks of Professor Walter Miller and Professor Perrin White, both well known, experienced and outstanding researchers in the field of CAH. They gave an excellent overview of the history of CAH and discussed future perspectives based on their more than 35 years’ experience in CAH research.

The organizers would like to thank all sponsors for financial support and all speakers for their contribution and the moderators for guiding us through the programme.  They would also like to thank Prevents for the perfect organization of the online symposium.