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Biomedical subjects

W Sneader

Publications and source records attributed to W Sneader.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The discovery and synthesis of epinephrine.

Epinephrine (adrenaline) was the first hormone to be isolated. The events leading up to this were initiated by experiments conducted by an English physician on his son. The active compound of epinephrine was isolated as an iron complex and marketed in 1900 by Farbwerke Hoechst as Suprarenin. In 1901, Parke-Davis began to market Adrenalin, the manufacturing of which was challenged by rival companies. Further analysis of the product revealed a lack of purity, and further chemical structures were proposed. In 1906, Hoechst began production of synthetic epinephrine, the introduction of which made the hormone more cheaply available on the market. Although the hormone had initially been marketed as a vasoconstrictor to stop bleeding and to raise blood pressure in patients experiencing surgical shock, its main application had been the treatment of asthmatic attacks. Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) was discovered in 1907 to be not only a biosynthetic precursor of epinephrine, but also a neurotransmitter.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Epinephrine analogues.

Tyramine was the first epinephrine analogue to be introduced into medicine, in the early 1900s. It was followed by ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in the 1920s and by the amfetamines a decade later. The popularity of the amfetamines grew throughout the 1930s and 1940s; after that, there was a slowly dawning realization that they were being widely abused. Isoprenaline, introduced in the 1950s, was soon recognized as superior to epinephrine when used as an inhaler by asthmatics, and it remained the drug of choice for the relief of bronchospasm until around 1970. Orciprenaline, which featured an orcinol system, had a long duration of action and was active by mouth; Boehringer marketed it both as an inhaler and as a syrup for the prophylaxis of bronchospasm. The greatly superior bronchodilators salbutamol and terbutaline, launched in 1968 and 1970, respectively, incorporate further variation on the molecular theme that had led to the development of orciprenaline.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Histamine and the classic antihistamines.

The first steps leading to the recognition of histamine's biological activity were taken in 1907. The existence of histamine in the body was finally recognized by 1910, and many researchers were keen to establish its physiological role, especially with regard to clinical shock and hypersensitivity reactions. The Pasteur Institute succeeded in finding a drug that would act as a biochemical tool to block the actions of histamine in the body and thereby reveal more about its physiological role, but none of its compounds was potent or safe enough to use in humans. Developments over the following years were made in producing compounds safe enough for clinical application in the treatment of allergies, and variations in these early antihistamines led to other uses. The first of the ethanolamine-based antihistamines marketed in the 1940s were used as antiallergy drugs, motion sickness remedies and antiemetics. The problem of drowsiness induced by antihistamines was overcome by the 1980s with drugs such as terfenadine and acrivastine.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1989

Synthesis of novel benzylimidazolines possessing antihypertensive and sedative activity.

In the course of a study to produce new long acting local anaesthetics, a number of novel benzylimidazoline derivatives were synthesised and tested for local anaesthetic activity, vasoconstrictor effect and ease of displacement of p-aminoclonidine. The synthesis is shown in Scheme 1.- The synthesised compounds do not exhibit a significant local anaesthetic effect, but display an antihypertensive action with considerable alpha-2 adrenoceptor binding affinity.

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