Vascular Biology Lab, AU-KBC Research Centre, Anna University, MIT Campus, Chennai, India.
Sci Rep. 2012;2:679. doi: 10.1038/srep00679. Epub 2012 Sep 20.
Thalidomide, a sedative drug given to pregnant women, unfortunately caused limb deformities in thousands of babies. Recently the drug was revived because of its therapeutic potential; however the search is still ongoing for an antidote against thalidomide induced limb deformities. In the current study we found that nitric oxide (NO) rescues thalidomide affected chick (Gallus gallus) and zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. This study confirms that NO reduced the number of thalidomide mediated limb deformities by 94% and 80% in chick and zebrafish embryos respectively. NO prevents limb deformities by promoting angiogenesis, reducing oxidative stress and inactivating caspase-3 dependent apoptosis. We conclude that NO secures angiogenesis in the thalidomide treated embryos to protect them from deformities.
沙利度胺是一种镇静药物，曾被孕妇使用，但不幸导致数千名婴儿出现肢体畸形。最近，由于其治疗潜力，该药物得以重新使用；然而，人们仍在寻找对抗沙利度胺引起的肢体畸形的解毒剂。在本研究中，我们发现一氧化氮（NO）可挽救沙利度胺作用下的鸡（Gallus gallus）和斑马鱼（Danio rerio）胚胎。这项研究证实，NO 可分别减少 94%和 80%的鸡和斑马鱼胚胎中沙利度胺引起的肢体畸形数量。NO 通过促进血管生成、减少氧化应激和使半胱氨酸天冬氨酸蛋白酶-3 依赖性细胞凋亡失活来预防肢体畸形。我们得出结论，NO 可确保沙利度胺处理的胚胎中的血管生成，从而保护它们免受畸形的影响。
