Thalidomide Research At AU-KBC

Thalidomide is a sedative-hypnotic, and multiple myeloma medication that was developed by German pharmaceutical company Grünenthal. Thalidomide was sold in a number of countries across the world from 1957 until 1961 when it was withdrawn from the market after being found to be the cause of what has been called "the biggest medical tragedy of modern times". In the early 1990s, thalidomide was first reported to exhibit potent anti-angiogenic properties, which was attributed to the teratogenic effects of limb bud malformations observed in offspring of thalidomide exposed mothers in 60’s. Thalidomide is gaining interest lately as FDA approved thalidomide for treatment of angiogenesis implicated diseases such as ENL in 1998, and recently in 2006 for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Lot of studies has been conducted exploring the underlining mechanism of anti-angiogenic effect of thalidomide. Although thalidomide is known to down-regulate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and beta fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) thus blocking angiogenesis, the mechanism of thalidomide mediated inhibition of angiogenesis is not fully understood. Additionally, we showed the putative targets of thalidomide action in the nitric oxide pathway, a key signaling pathway in angiogenesis and their interactions with thalidomide (Refer presentation). Our research focus is to dissect the mechanism of anti-angiogenesis activity of thalidomide.