Leopold Ther

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Leopold Ther (born April 19, 1908 in Vienna ; † April 25, 1971 ) was an Austrian pharmacologist . His most important scientific achievement was the discovery of the point of attack of caffeine and other methyl xanthines in the body.

Life

Ther was the son of a pharmacist. He studied pharmacy and then medicine at the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague , where he was particularly influenced by the professor of pharmacology Emil Starkenstein . In 1937 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD . He then worked at the Pharmacological Institute of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena with Richard Labes (1889–1971) and from 1947 at the Pharmacological Institute of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main with Otto Riesser . In 1949 he completed his habilitation with a thesis related to Riesser's research area, studies of respiration and glycogen formation in isolated muscles . In the same year he joined Farbwerke Hoechst AG , where in 1953 he took over the management of the pharmacological laboratory. In 1957 he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main, of which he was a member until his death.

plant

The book Pharmacological Methods , which appeared in 1949 with a foreword by Otto Riesser, became important for researching pharmacologists .

During his time at Hoechst, he contributed to the development of the opioid levomethadone , which was marketed as L-Polamidon®, the antitussive normethadone, which was marketed as Ticarda®, and the antidepressant nomifensin , which was marketed as Alival® , the local anesthetic Cornecain® and the diuretic furosemide , which was marketed as Lasix® and for which Thers colleague Roman Muschaweck (1918–2007) made special contributions.

In Thers time, Farbwerke Hoechst sold a mixture of adenosine and theophylline under the brand name Parmanil® . It was hoped that the vasodilator effects of the two substances would be mutually reinforcing. Ther and his colleagues tested this experimentally on isolated hearts from guinea pigs . On the contrary, what they found was an antagonism : theophylline abolished the cardiac effects of adenosine. It was a discovery of far-reaching importance. The methylxanthines caffeine and theophylline act in the body in general - in the brain, in the heart, in the bronchi and in the kidneys - primarily as antagonists at adenosine receptors , whether they are used as a medicinal product or as a luxury product.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ HG Vogel: In memoriam Professor Dr. Leopold Ther. In: drug research . Volume 21, 1971, p. 901
  2. ↑ a b Klaus Starke: There can be the trace of our earth floors - on pharmacologists and pharmacology. In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology . Volume 380, 2009, pp. 465-471
  3. ^ Leopold Ther: Pharmacological methods. Stuttgart, Scientific Publishing Company 1949.
  4. ^ Gerhard Vogel: Pharmacological and toxicological laboratories at Hoechst / Aventis. In: Athineos Philippu: History and work of the pharmacological, clinical-pharmacological and toxicological institutes in German-speaking countries. Berenkamp 2004, ISBN 3-85093-180-3
  5. ↑ Leopold Ther, R. Muschaweck and J. Hergott: Antagonism between adenosine and methyl xanthines in the conduction system of the heart. In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology. Volume 231, 1957, pp. 586-590
personal data
SURNAME Ther, Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pharmacologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1971