著者
西村 幸治 橋本 祐一 岩崎 成夫
出版者
The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan
雑誌
Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin (ISSN:00092363)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.42, no.5, pp.1157-1159, 1994-05-15 (Released:2008-03-31)
参考文献数
8
被引用文献数
57 73

The rate of racemization of N(α)-phthalimidoglutarimide (thalidomide) was determined as its half life to be 566 min at pH 7.4/37°C. This fast racemization of thalidomide resulted in no apparent difference between (S)- and (R)-forms of the compound on enhancing activity of phorbol ester-induced tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production by human leukemia HL-60 cells. Optically pure forms of structurally related analog of thalidomide, (S)- and (R)-α -methyl-N(α)-phthalimidoglutarimides (methylthalidomides), which do not racemize under the physiological condition, were prepared. Only (S)-form of methylthalidomide, but not its (R)-form, elicited TNF-α production-enhancing effect, suggesting that the (S)-isomer of thalidomide would be the active form in terms of thalidomidal biological response modifying effects.