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Toxicity and teratogenicity of optical isomers of thalidomide. Fabro S,Smith R L,Williams R T Nature 10.1038/215296a0
Thalidomide. Franks Michael E,Macpherson Gordon R,Figg William D Lancet (London, England) Despite its history as a human teratogen, thalidomide is emerging as a treatment for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Although the evolution of its clinical application could not have been predicted from the tragedy associated with its misuse in the past, its history serves as a lesson in drug development that underscores the need to understand the molecular pharmacology of a compound's activity, including associated toxicities. Here, we summarise the applications for thalidomide with an emphasis on clinical trials published over the past 10 years, and consider our knowledge of the molecular pharmacology of the drug in the context of clinical trial data, attempting to provide a mechanism-guided understanding of its activity. 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16308-3
The thalidomide disaster, lessons from the past. Ridings James E Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) It is close to 60 years since thalidomide was created by the German company, Chemie-Grünenthal, and launched as "Contergan." This was soon to be followed in England by the launch of "Distaval." Of all the drugs developed in the intervening years, thalidomide has undoubtedly had the greatest influence on shaping the Pharmaceutical Industry as we know it today.Strong marketing pressure in an Industry hungry for new medicines brought an inadequately tested drug to the market, targeted outsourcing quickly expanded the client base and finally market forces prevented timely withdrawal, even when evidence was emerging of disastrous side-effects. The full story of thalidomide was told by the Sunday Times in "Suffer The Children" (Kingsley et al., Suffer the children: the story of thalidomide, the insight team of the Sunday times (UK), 1979).Many preventative measures have been taken in the intervening years in light of the lessons learned with thalidomide. However, many of the pressures that led to the thalidomide disaster exist today with record high management and shareholder pressures to achieve success, parallel worldwide marketing, increased numbers of targeted outsourcing by small companies forming alliances with "Big Pharma" and, according to some commentators, a breakdown in the system of checks and balances that have existed in the regulatory authorities in the intervening years.Using thalidomide as a point of reference, this chapter looks at drug development and testing, regulatory authorities and guidelines, outsourcing and in-licensing, pharmacovigilance, and factors that influence withdrawal of a drug from the market. 10.1007/978-1-62703-131-8_36
Thalidomide induces limb defects by preventing angiogenic outgrowth during early limb formation. Therapontos Christina,Erskine Lynda,Gardner Erin R,Figg William D,Vargesson Neil Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Thalidomide is a potent teratogen that induces a range of birth defects, most commonly of the developing limbs. The mechanisms underpinning the teratogenic effects of thalidomide are unclear. Here we demonstrate that loss of immature blood vessels is the primary cause of thalidomide-induced teratogenesis and provide an explanation for its action at the cell biological level. Antiangiogenic but not antiinflammatory metabolites/analogues of thalidomide induce chick limb defects. Both in vitro and in vivo, outgrowth and remodeling of more mature blood vessels is blocked temporarily, whereas newly formed, rapidly developing, angiogenic vessels are lost. Such vessel loss occurs upstream of changes in limb morphogenesis and gene expression and, depending on the timing of drug application, results in either embryonic death or developmental defects. These results explain both the timing and relative tissue specificity of thalidomide embryopathy and have significant implications for its use as a therapeutic agent. 10.1073/pnas.0901505106