What effect did thalidomide have on unborn babies?

The degradation of SALL4 interferes with limb development and other aspects of fetal growth. The result is the spectrum of complications indelibly linked to thalidomide: the deformed limbs and defective organs in children whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy as a treatment for morning sickness.

What is the most common teratogenic effect associated with thalidomide?

Thalidomide is a teratogenic drug, meaning that when taken while pregnant, it can have terrible impacts on fetal development and cause irreversible damages. Phocomelia, a limb atrophy, is the most common malformation linked to thalidomide, but all phocomelia cases aren’t caused by thalidomide.

How did thalidomide cause birth?

Led by a team of authors, the study found that thalidomide actively degrades several C 2H 2 zinc finger transcription factors, including a cell protein known as SALL4. Without SALL4, cells are unable to fully develop which inhibits a foetus’s ability to grow limbs and other important organs.

Does thalidomide treat leprosy?

During the mid-1960s, the drug thalidomide was reintroduced as treatment for a complication of leprosy called Erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL). Although the evidence was not fully established, very soon the drug was heralded as the drug of choice for the management of ENL reactions in leprosy.

How do teratogens cause birth defects?

As a baby grows in the womb, teratogens may affect parts of the baby’s body as they are forming. For example, the neural tube closes in the first 3 to 5 weeks of the pregnancy. During this time, teratogens can cause neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

What deformities did thalidomide cause?

The birth defects caused by the drug thalidomide can range from moderate malformation to more severe forms. Possible birth defects include phocomelia, dysmelia, amelia, bone hypoplasticity, and other congenital defects affecting the ear, heart, or internal organs.

Is thalidomide a teratogenic drug?

Teratogenic effects of thalidomide: molecular mechanisms Fifty years ago, prescription of the sedative thalidomide caused a worldwide epidemic of multiple birth defects. The drug is now used in the treatment of leprosy and multiple myeloma. However, its use is limited due to its potent teratogenic activity.

What is thalidomide used for in pregnancy?

Thalidomide was a widely used drug in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the treatment of nausea in pregnant women. It became apparent in the 1960s that thalidomide treatment resulted in severe birth defects in thousands of children. Though the use of thalidomide was banned in most countries at that …

Does thalidomide cause birth defects?

The evidence that thalidomide causes birth defects is now undoubted. Multiple animal species have been shown to be susceptible to thalidomide damage, including non‐human primates, rabbits, armadillos, Xenopus, marsupials, hamster, chicken, zebrafish, marine fish, hydra, and even bacteria (Fort et al., 2000; Vargesson, 2013; Hartmann et al., 2014).

What is the mortality and morbidity associated with thalidomide embryopathy?

Infant mortality in babies born with severe thalidomide embryopathy is as high as 40%, quite likely due to internal organ damage (Smithells and Newman, 1992; Vargesson, 2013). Furthermore, many babies with these malformations are likely to have died in uteroand been miscarried or stillborn.