The invention relates to methods to treat specified clinical disorders such as hyperglycemia, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The invention also provides methods to identify and characterize drugs, which are characterized in part by eliciting a variable biologic or therapeutic effect on a biomolecule at one time and relative normalization of the biomolecule at another time point. Compounds include 17.alpha.-ethynylandrost-5-ene-3.beta.,7.beta., 17.beta.-triol or androst-5-ene-3.beta.,4.beta., 16.alpha., 17.beta.-tetrol, which can be used as reference standards to facilitate assessing and characterizing such candidate drugs.
