Otto Schaumann

This article explains the pharmacologist; for the soccer player, see Otto Schaumann (soccer player) .

Otto Schaumann (born April 14, 1891 in Vienna , † January 24, 1977 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian doctor and pharmacologist . With pethidine he discovered the first fully synthetic opioid , the beginning of an important group of drugs .

Life

After graduating from high school in 1909, Schaumann studied medicine in Vienna and was awarded a Dr. med. PhD . This was followed by three years of military service in the First World War and one year in 1919 at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Vienna with Hans Horst Meyer . He then worked at the Vienna Institute for Medicinal Chemistry with Hans Fischer . In 1921 Fischer was appointed to the chair for chemistry at the Technical University of Munich , and Schaumann accompanied him as an assistant. After a short Munich interlude, Schaumann moved to the Kalle chemical factory in Biebrich , where Fischer's father was the works manager. He married the chemist Maria Kaan. When the Kalle company was merged into IG Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft in 1925 , Schaumann became head of its pharmacological institute at the Hoechst paintworks . He stayed there until 1946. In 1941 he completed his habilitation in pharmacology with Fritz Külz at the University of Frankfurt . In 1947 he followed a call to the chair for pharmacognosy at the University of Innsbruck . "His election as dean for the academic year 1953/54 proves that, although he was a medical doctor, he had fully grown into the philosophical faculty." In 1962 he retired . One son, Wolfgang Schaumann (* 1926), also became a pharmacologist and from 1959 to 1989 headed first pharmacology and then all of the medical research at Boehringer Mannheim .

plant

In search of blood pressure-increasing and vasoconstricting substances, Schaumann examined ephedrine and its isomers , later the hydroxylated derivatives of ephedrine, including in particular 3,4-dihydroxynorephedrine (α-methylnoradrenaline, "Corbasil"). Ephedrine sensitized blood vessels to adrenaline similar to cocaine . The p-Hydroxyephedrine was introduced into the trade as "Suprifen".

The local anesthetic tetracaine , which Schaumann described in 1931, is still used today . In 1938, Schaumann summarized the pharmacology of local anesthetics in a lecture to the German Pharmacological Society .

The most momentous was the discovery of pethidine - the current international non-proprietary name of the substance - as a morphine-like analgesic and thus the first fully synthetic opioid . The research group at Hoechst was actually looking for an antispasmodic , and this is how the new substance worked. But she did more:

“Much greater theoretical and practical importance than the spasmolytic efficacy to be expected from the outset is the discovery that in the new body class there are series of compounds that exert a specific central analgesic effect that is qualitatively very similar to the effect of morphine and also quantitatively close reaches up to them. The peculiar tail posture in mice during the toxicity determination was groundbreaking for the discovery of this effect. Even if this is not strictly specific for morphine, it nevertheless gave rise to testing the animals for the presence of analgesia . In fact, there was a surprising finding of a strong analgesic effectiveness, which could then also be demonstrated with other test methods and has been confirmed in clinical experience. "

The “peculiar tail position in mice” is the “mouse tail phenomenon” discovered by Walther Straub in 1911 in Freiburg im Breisgau , an S-shaped curvature of the tail after injection of morphine. Hoechst brought the pethidine on the market as "Dolantin". After the Second World War, the “patent fell to a certain extent under the reparation payments made by the Germans to the Americans”.

Fully synthetic opioids

Almost at the same time as pethidine, the Hoechst research group found another fully synthetic opioid which, after the documents were confiscated by the Allies, only became known as "HOE 10820" in 1946, was given the international non-proprietary name methadone and was introduced in Germany under the name "Polamidon". Because of the cough suppressant effect of morphine, the group also researched in this direction and found the methadone derivative normethadone, which with the addition of "Suprifen" under the name "Ticarda" served as an antitussive for some time . In 1957, Schaumann summarized the knowledge about morphine and its pharmacological relatives in the handbook of experimental pharmacology . He rightly writes in the foreword: "The year 1940 is a milestone in the pharmacology of these important therapeutics due to the discovery of the fully synthetic, morphine-like compounds."

The son Wolfgang also did research on opioids at the beginning of his professional career and received significant results on their mechanism of action.

In 1925, Hoechst had the mercury-containing diuretic "Salyrgan", the international non-proprietary name Mersalyl , patented. Schaumann investigated its interaction with the posterior pituitary hormones oxytocin and vasopressin, which had long been of interest to him . The publication is an example of the fate of research during World War II . The experiments were carried out in 1941. They could not be completed as desired; because the employee “Miss. Lisbeth Schmidt fell victim to a low-flying attack on February 2, 1945 on the way back from her job . ”The manuscript could only be submitted in June 1947, in order to appear in 1948. The authors suspect that mersalyl primarily promotes the renal excretion of chloride ions .

Honors

In 1955, Schaumann became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , and in 1962 a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . In the same year, the University of Frankfurt awarded him an honorary medical doctorate . In 1965 he received the Schmiedeberg badge, the highest award from the German Pharmacological Society. In 1971 he became honorary senator of the University of Innsbruck.

literature

• Maria Kuhnert-Brandstätter: Obituary for em. Univ.-Prof. Dr. med Dr. med. hc Otto Schaumann (1891–1977). In: Reports of the natural science-medical association Innsbruck. 64, 1977, pp. 223-229. (PDF)
• Rudolf Vierhaus: German Biographical Encyclopedia Volume 8, KG Saur Verlag , Munich / Leipzig, p. 778.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ V. Höllt, C. Allgaier: analgesics. In: K. Aktories, U. Förstermann, F. Hofmann, K. Starke (eds.): General and special pharmacology and toxicology. 11th edition. Munich, Elsevier 2013, ISBN 978-3-437-42523-3 , pp. 207-232.
2. ↑ Gerhard Vogel: Pharmacological and Toxicological Laboratories at Hoechst / Aventis. In: Athineos Philippu (Ed.): History and work of the pharmacological, clinical-pharmacological and toxicological institutes in German-speaking countries. Berenkamp-Verlag, Innsbruck 2004, ISBN 3-85093-180-3 , pp. 881-904.
3. ↑ Kuhnert-Brandstätter: Obituary ... 1977, p. 225.
4. ↑ Otto Schaumann: About the mechanism of action of ephedrine and the difference in the strength of action between its isomers . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 138 , 1928, pp. 208-218 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01962003 .
5. ↑ O. Schaumann: About Oxy-Ephedrine . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 160 , 1931, pp. 127-176 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01863747 .
6. ↑ O. Schaumann: On the pharmacology of the optical isomers of 3,4-dioxy-nor-ephedrine (Corbasil) . In: Medicine and Chemistry. Treatises from the medical-chemical research facilities of IG Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft . tape 3 , 1936, pp. 383-392 .
7. ↑ R. Pedestrian, O. Schaumann: About a new local anesthetic of the novocaine series (pantocaine) . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 160 , 1931, pp. 53-65 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01863572 .
8. ^ O. Schaumann: Chemistry and pharmacology of local anesthetics . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 190 , 1938, pp. 30-51 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01865435 .
9. ↑ O. Schaumann: About a new class of compounds with spasmolytic and central analgesic activity with special consideration of the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (Dolantin) . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 196 , 1940, pp. 109-136 , doi : 10.1007 / BF01861099 .
10. ↑ Klaus Starke. The history of the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Freiburg. 2nd Edition. 2007, pp. 10-11. PDF .
11. ↑ Kuhnert-Brandstätter: Obituary ... 1977, p. 224.
12. ↑ O. Schaumann, E. Lindner: New synthetic compounds of the "Polamidon range" with parasympathicolytic effect . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 214 , 1951, pp. 93-102 , doi : 10.1007 / BF00245042 .
13. ^ O. Schaumann: Morphine and morphine-like compounds. In: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. Supplementary work, Volume 12, 1957. Springer-Verlag , Berlin 1957.
14. ^ W. Schaumann: Inhibition by morphine of the release of acetylcholine from the intestine of the guinea-pig . In: British Journal of Pharmacology . tape 12 , 1957, pp. 115-118 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1476-5381.1957.tb01372.x , PMID 13413162 . On the significance of K. Starke: Regulation of noradrenaline release by presynaptic receptors . In: Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology . tape 77 , 1977, pp. 1–124, here pp. 82–91 .
15. ^ O. Schaumann, Lisbeth Schmidt: About the influence of oxytocin and vasopressin on salt diuresis by salyrgan . In: Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archive for experimental pathology and pharmacology . tape 208 , 1948, pp. 367-375 , doi : 10.1007 / BF00244831 .