NR3C1 and acute respiratory distress syndrome: Dexamethasone exhibits approximately 20–30 times the anti-inflammatory potency of hydrocortisone, demonstrates higher GR binding affinity, and has a prolonged biological half-life (36–54 h), ensuring sustained suppression of the continuous inflammatory cascade characteristic of ARDS (Cho and Suh, 2024; Luyt et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2023).