Thalidomide Drug - [Side-Effects]

Welcome,

Today, we will continue exploring the catastrophic side of the Thalidomide drug.
As mentioned before, in the previous post, thousands of people consuming the Thalidomide drug were left with horrific physical defects. Most of them were deterioriation of nerve cells. Thalidomide blocked the development of any new blood vessels.

But this all, as much as horrible it was, couldn't compare to what happened to the pregnant women consuming that drug. The Thalidomide tragedy mainly affected new born babies; thousands of them were born with terrible defects.

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC/EXPLICIT CONTENT!

Seeing how Thalidomide can destroy human body, many of you may question me why I created this blog. It's it better to forget entirely about it? The answer is no, because, as surprising as this may sounds, Thalidomide can also bring some benefits. But about the other side of that drug we will discuss very soon.

Until next time,
yours MPN

Thalidomide Drug - [A new drug]

Welcome,

Today we will talk a bit about the thalidomide drug.

It was first introduced to the market in 1957 by a pharmaceutical company in West Germany with its molecular formula C13H10N2O4. The new drug was sold in 46 countries under at least 37 brand names. At that time it was a very well-known drug recommended for patients suffering from epilepsy. Many doctors also prescribed it as an effective sedative and sleeping drug for pregnant women to ease their morning sickness.

The thalidomide molecule has one chiral carbon and therefore the whole molecule is also chiral. It is the racemic mixture of the (+)(R)-thalidomide and (-)(S)-thalidomide enantiomers.

Image 2. shows the thalidomide enantiomers.

It was later found out that R-thalidomide was sleep inducing while S-thalidomide was teratogenic and was the one responsible for many catastrophic side-effects, such as birth defection or deterioration of limb nerves.

However, there is still a lot more about the thalidomide that we will explore soon.

Until next time,
yours MPN

Reference
Ashley Yip (2011) Thalidomide http://jeanbont.pbworks.com/f/thalidomide%20enantiomers.gif last visited 20.11.2011
Prof Derek Cheung (2007) Thalidomide: A Controversial Chiral Drug. Quality Education Fund, Hong Kong

Thalidomide Drug - [Enantiomers]

Welcome,

Before we start any discusions about the thalidomide drug we need to know few basic facts. To fully understand how thalidomide works it is necessary to familiarise with the term ‘enantiomer’.

“Enantiomers are optical isomers which are nonsuperimposable mirror-image structures.” (Prof Derek Cheung, 2007)

In other words these molecules are like a mirror reflections. They may look identical but they cannot be fully covered and laid on top of each other. That property of nonsuperimposability is called chirality. They have a chiral centre carbon. By the term ‘chiral’ it means that a carbon atom has 4 different, therefore nonidentical atoms or groups attached to it. That tetrahedral arrangement results in the existence of two enantiomers, which can be easily distinguished because they have the ability to rotate the radiation of plane-polarized light. A dextrorotatory (+)enantiomer has the clockwise direction whereas a levorotatory (-)enantiomer has the counterclockwise direction.

Image 1. shows two enantiomers: left is (-) enantiomer, right is (+) enantiomer.

A mixture of equal (50/50) amount of the (+) and (-) enantiomers is called a racemic mixture.

Until next time,
yours MPN

Reference
Prof Derek Cheung (2007) Thalidomide: A Controversial Chiral Drug. Quality Education Fund, Hong Kong
Boonrawd Wongsawat (2008) Stereoisomerism – Optical Isomerism http//www.promma.ac.th/main/chemistry/boonrawd_site/isomer_files/alanineisom.GIF last visited 20.11.2011

Thalidomide Drug - [Introduction]

Welcome to the Thalidomide Drug Blog,

This blog will be used to familiarise people with the drug that had a catastrophic effect on the lives of thousand of people and whose effects are still present until now. The drug that, despite its negative side-effects, still holds a hope to cure many severe diseases. I will try to present all important aspects of the thalidomine in an easy to understand approach. I hope you will enjoy your stay here.

If you find anything interesting related to the topic, please don't hesitate to post them in the comment section or just send me a message.

Until next time,
yours MPN