Franz Theodor von Brücke

Franz Theodor von Brücke

Franz Theodor von Brücke (born January 15, 1908 in Leipzig , † March 24, 1970 in Vienna ) was a German-Austrian doctor and pharmacologist .

Life

Franz Theodor von Brücke was a son of the Leipzig and later Innsbruck professor of physiology Ernst Theodor von Brücke and his wife Pauline nee. Roelfs. Painters and engravers can be found among the North German ancestors. The first important scientist in the family was Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke , Franz Theodor's great-grandfather. He was appointed to the chair of physiology in Vienna in 1849 and his services for 1873 ennobled .

Franz Theodor graduated from high school in Innsbruck and Salem in the Lake Constance district and then studied medicine in Innsbruck, Vienna, Berlin and Leipzig. After graduating as Dr. med. in Innsbruck 1931 he spent a year with the biochemists Peter Rona (1871–1945) and Carl Neuberg in Berlin, two years with the pharmacologist Otto Loewi in Graz and six months with the internist Hans Eppinger in Vienna. In 1934 he joined the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Vienna , headed by Ernst Peter Pick . A Rockefeller Fellowship enabled him to do research in England at the National Institute for Medical Research with Henry Hallett Dale and at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Cambridge with Ernest Basil Verney in the late 1930s . While he was already drafted into the German armed forces as a medical officer, he completed his habilitation in 1941 in Vienna for pharmacology. The Second World War ended for him with a second stay in England, this time as a prisoner of war.

In 1948 he was appointed to the Vienna Chair of Pharmacology as the successor to Richard Rössler (1897–1945), who in turn had followed Ernst Pick. Despite two appointments to the universities of Ottawa and Munich, he headed the institute for 22 years, until his death. With his wife Gertraud he had a son and two daughters.

plant

research

von Brückes research was mainly in neuropharmacology, and in it the autonomic nervous system , the central nervous system and the motor end plate . He had excellent teachers in it, among them Loewi in Graz and Dale in London, who shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine .

Autonomic Nervous System

It was an investigation into the autonomic nervous system , namely the innervation of the hair follicle muscles, the arrectores pilorum muscles , that brought Dale's attention to him and, through Dale, won him the Rockefeller Fellowship. In 1935 von Brücke found that acetylcholine had two effects when injected into the skin: the hair at the injection site straightened up and the usual straightening of the hair when the sympathetic nervous system was irritated was inhibited. Both the findings and the interpretation of Brückes have been confirmed; To put it in today's terminology: he has detected presynaptic receptors at the axon endings of the sympathetic nervous system, namely both stimulating nicotine receptors and inhibiting muscarinic receptors . 23 years later, von Brücke was able to report on the confirmation in an overview presentation.

In studies between 1938 and 1963, he clarified the regulation of the input muscle of the stomach, the cardia . Nerves with noradrenaline as a neurotransmitter relaxed the cardia via beta adrenoceptors . The effects of various forms of sympathetic activation on the adrenal medulla and consequences of a destruction of the sympathetic were further topics from the autonomic nervous system.

Central nervous system

Also in 1935 already publish bridge pioneering studies on the pharmacology of Corydalis - alkaloid bulbocapnine . “Bulbocapnin has a clear calming effect on the compulsive actions that occur in rabbits and pigeons after injection of apomorphine . Both the forced gnawing and the picking instinct can be prevented by the alkaloid from occurring or, if they have already developed, can be stopped. ... These facts ... give ... an indication of the point of attack of the bulbocapnin effect insofar as the forced gnawing in rabbits seems to be caused by processes in the corpus striatum of these animals and therefore this part of the brain is particularly likely to be influenced by bulbocapnin. "Lange prior to the identification of neurotransmitters in the brain anatomy and the physiology of the here dopamine - nerve cells brought together: the corpus striatum contains axons of dopamine neurons as well as dopamine receptors , which are activated by apomorphine and blocked by bulbocapnine. Von Brücke later also included electroencephalography in his neuropharmacological methods.

Motorized end plate

Research - beginning in 1950 - on ganglion blockers and those muscle relaxants that are pharmacologically related to ganglion blockers and that attack the motor endplate gained considerable practical therapeutic importance . Brückes employees Gerhard Werner, Hans Klupp and Karlheinz Ginzel (see below) were particularly involved. Suxamethonium , then coded M 115 , was one of the substances . It had already been synthesized in 1906, and the Italian pharmacologist Daniel Bovet had also studied it. But it was not until the detailed animal experiments in Vienna that it was introduced into the clinic in 1951. The substance was provided by the Austrian Nitrogen Works in Linz , which itself did not conduct any pharmacological research. At the same time, the Swedish pharmacologist Stephen Thesleff (* 1924) from the Department of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute was able to introduce it .

Suxamethonium : Introduction to the Clinic

In their publication, the Austrian authors justify the use of muscle relaxants in a similar way to what Arthur Läwen had done about 40 years earlier , whose work had since been forgotten. You write: “In order to avoid damage from anesthesia, modern anesthesia technology endeavors to limit the dose or concentration of general anesthetics to the minimum necessary to eliminate consciousness and the sensation of pain. Muscle-paralyzing substances are used to immobilize the patient's motor skills during the operation. ”They then name the disadvantages of tubocurarine , which was mostly used until then , mention the difference in the mechanism of action between tubocurarine and M 115 , report on a self-experiment and its use in 17 patients and conclude , M 115 is characterized by fewer undesirable effects. "In addition, the effect of this preparation can be controlled due to its prompt onset of action and its rapid inactivation." The speed and brevity of the effect are the reason for the use of suxamethonium to this day. von Brücke himself did not participate in the original publications, rather leaving them to the younger ones, but has summarized the topic in an overview in the journal Pharmacological Reviews . Hans von Brücke , the first author of the introductory publication, surgeon in Mürzzuschlag , was a brother of Franz Theodor.

student

As important as his own research, von Brucke's work included the reconstruction of the Vienna Pharmacological Institute, which was impoverished in terms of personnel and material during the war. He succeeded in promoting young employees in such a way that they achieve important things. These include:

• Gerhard Werner, later professor of pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh ,
• Hans Klupp (* 1919), later pharmacologist at Dr. Karl Thomae GmbH in Biberach an der Riß and then head of biological research at Boehringer Ingelheim ,
• Karlheinz Ginzel, later professor at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Arkansas in Little Rock ,
• Otto Kraupp (1920–1998), whose main field of work was cardiovascular pharmacology, from 1967 professor at the Ruhr University Bochum and from 1972 from Brückes successor in Vienna,
• Christoph Stumpf (* 1924), from 1978 head of his own institute for neuropharmacology in Vienna,
• Walter Kobinger (* 1927), later head of the Ernst Boehringer Institute for Drug Research in Vienna, where, among other things, the mode of action of clonidine and so-called "specifically bradycardic substances" such as ivabradine was researched,
• Oleh Hornykiewicz (* 1926), the discoverer of dopamine deficiency in Parkinson's disease , with whom von Brückes work on bulbocapnin was continued,
• Georg Hertting (1925–2014), from 1973 professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , with which von Brückes work on the autonomic nervous system was continued,
• Peter Heistracher (* 1931) with a research focus on antiarrhythmics , from 1974 head of a newly founded institute for pharmacology and toxicology at the Vienna Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and
• Josef Suko (* 1936), Research Focus of membrane transport for calcium - ion , according to Kraupps retirement 1992-1995 Director of the Institute.

Medical and academic organizations

von Brücke was dean of the Vienna Medical Faculty from 1954 to 1955 and a long member of the academic senate. He was a board member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors , President of the Austrian Biochemical Society and Vice President of the Society of Doctors in Vienna .

From 1955 to 1970 he published the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift . For many years he headed the institute for pharmacological and balneological examinations , the forerunner of the Federal Institute for Drugs in Vienna, and was a member of the Supreme Medical Council .

Ideological organizations

From January 4, 1954 (date of foundation) until (at least) the end of December 1956, von Brücke was chairman of the association 'Save Life', the forerunner organization of Aktion Leben Österreich .

recognition

The Austrian Academy of Sciences made von Brücke a full member . He was an honorary senator of the University of Innsbruck . The Austrian Pharmacological Society and the German Pharmacological Society awarded him honorary membership. He was the holder of the Billroth Medal and the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art .

His pupil Otto Kraupp judged: “The tolerance and the liberal nature, as they came to light in the relationship and in dealing with his employees, contrasted with a clear and uncompromising intellectual attitude and foundation in all questions of ethics and religious creed. At a time when unlimited relativization had long since left the realms of natural science and had broken into all areas of public morality, Brücke's main intellectual concern was the search for a solid ethical and ideological reference point against which the value of all human activity could be measured . Brücke found this absolute basis in his Christian Catholic faith, which allowed him to endure the long weeks of waiting for death with firmness and calm. "

In an obituary in the journal Nature it says (from English): "It is not an exaggeration to say that his ingenuity and foresight saved Austria from the thalidomide catastrophe."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} O. Kraupp: In memoriam Professor Dr. Franz Theodor von Brücke. In: Drug Research 1970; 20: 728-730
2. ^ ^{A b} Josef Suko: Pharmacological Institute, Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. In: Athineos Philippu (Ed.): History and work of the pharmacological, clinical-pharmacological and toxicological institutes in German-speaking countries. Innsbruck, Berenkamp-Verlag 2004, pp. 624–633. ISBN 3-85093-180-3
3. ↑ Theodor von d. Wense:  Bridge, Ernst Theodor von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 654 f. ( Digitized version ).
4. ^ Hermann Ziegenspeck :  Bridge, Ernst Wilhelm von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 655 ( digitized version ).
5. ↑ F. Th. Brücke: About the effect of acetylcholine on the pilomotor. In: Klinische Wochenschrift 1935; 14: 7-9
6. ↑ Klaus Starke: Regulation of noradrenaline release by presynaptic receptor systems. In: Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology 1977; 77: 1-124
7. ↑ F. Brücke: On the physiology of the vegetative innervation of the skin. In: Journal of Neural Transmission 1958; 18: 203-214
8. ^ F. Brücke: The function of "α- and β-receptors" in the cardiac sphincter mechanism in rabbits. In: International Journal of Neuropharmacology 1964; 3: 157-161
9. ^ Franz Th. Brücke: Contributions to the pharmacology of Bulbocapnins. In: Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archive for Experimental Pathology and Pharmacology 1935; 179: 504-523
10. ^ Klaus Starke: A history of Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology 1998; 358: 1–109, here p. 52
11. ↑ Stephen Thesleff: Farmakologiska och kliniska försök med LT 1 (OO-succinyl-choline-iodide). In: Nordisk medicin 1951; 46: 1045
12. ↑ ^{a b} H. Brücke, KH Ginzel, H. Klupp, F. Pfaffenschlager and G. Werner: Bis-choline esters of dicarboxylic acids as muscle relaxants in anesthesia. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift 1951; 63: 464-466
13. ↑ K. Starke: Pharmacology of cholinergic systems. In: K. Aktories, U. Förstermann, F. Hofmann and K. Starke (eds.): General and special pharmacology and toxicology. 10th edition, Munich, Elsevier GmbH 2009, pages 137-160. ISBN 978-3-437-42522-6
14. ↑ F. Brücke: Dicholinesters of α, ω-dicarboxylic acids and related substances. In: Pharmacological Reviews 1956; 8: 265-335.
15. ↑ http://othes.univie.ac.at/5149/1/2009-02-01_7904536.pdf , p. 114ff.
16. ↑ Obituary Professor FT von Brücke. In: Nature 1970; 227: 758