Morning
Sickness Pill Disaster
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| Source: Chris Venter. Thalidomide Enantiomers. Taken December 3, 2013. |
Many people know or have heard of the “morning sickness pill”
crises in the 1960’s, when mothers who took thalidomide for nausea and morning
sickness gave birth to babies with horrible malformations (1). What many people
don’t know is that it is being researched for use in many medical applications
today, the most notable being cancer treatment. Discovered by mistake as a by-product
of a specific antibiotic synthesis by two Germans, it was supposed to be used
as an anticonvulsant (2), it did not work but showed to be a good sleeping pill
and was sold to consumers as such.
If taken within the
first trimester of pregnancy, thalidomide interferes with the development of
limbs and the vertebral column (1). The problem is that thalidomide exists as
two enantiomers (3), or more simply as mirror images of one another. One of
these is responsible for the sedative effects, while the other causes
malformations, and even if you are given the right “version” your body may turn
one into the other.
Now for the good news. There is a lot of research going on
into exploiting the useful properties of thalidomide. This ranges from
thalidomide being used to block growth factors used by cancer tumors, reducing
cell adhesion and preventing angiogenesis of tumors, all the way to thalidomide
being used to help AIDS and HIV patients gain weight (3). One area that
thalidomide is being used commonly these days is for treatment of leprosy skin
lesions (3).
References
(1) Klein, J. (2002-2008). Thalidomide –
Contergan. Retrieved November 8, 2013 from http://www.k-faktor.com/thalidomide/
(2) Thalidomide Victims Association of
Canada. (2013). Recognition of Thalidomide Defects. Retrieved November 9, 2013
from http://www.thalidomide.ca/recognition-of-thalidomide-defects/
(3) Franks, M. E., Macpherson, G. R., Figg, W.
D., (2004). Thalidomide. The Lancet. 363(9423), 1802-1811.
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16308-3 
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