Kellersberger Memorial Lecture 1979: immunosuppressive/anti-inflammatory thalidomide analogues
Hastings, R.C.
Ethiopian Medical Journal 18(2): 65-71
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0014-1755 PMID: 7418703 Document Number: 5453
Thalidomide is highly effective in the clinical management of erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) occurring in lepromatous leprosy. Studies on thalidomide's mechanism of action in ENL suggest that there are two clinically relevant sites of action of the drug: inhibition of neutrophil chemotaxis and inhibition of IgM antibody formation. Twenty-three thalidomide derivatives have been screened for activity in in vivo models of these two steps involved in ENL, the late stages of carrageenan rat paw oedema and IgM antibody-forming cells in mouse spleens after immunization with sheep erythrocytes. Structure-activity relationships show that teratogenicity is separable from immunosuppressant activity in these thalidomide derivatives. This raises the hope that a nonteratogenic thalidomide analogue can be found which will be clinically effective in ENL.
Document emailed within 1 workday
