Edward C. Kendall (1886–1972), Phillip S. Hench (1896–1965), Tadeus Reichstein (1897–1996), Lewis H. Sarett (1917–1999)
In 1941, rumors surfaced that Luftwaffe pilots were receiving injections of steroid hormones from the adrenal cortex, enabling them to withstand high-altitude stress. Among the chemists the American military contacted to deal with this one-upmanship was Edward C. Kendall, a research biochemist at the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minnesota, who had previously conducted research on adrenal-gland chemistry. Although the rumor proved false, Kendall, collaborating with Merck chemist Lewis H. Sarett, began producing large quantities of “Kendall’s Compound E.” This was to become one of the most important drugs ever discovered.
At about the same, Phillip Hench at the Mayo Clinic observed that women with rheumatoid arthritis experienced fewer arthritic symptoms while pregnant. Hench speculated that their temporary pain relief resulted from release of an antistress hormone during pregnancy. In 1948, Hench tested “Kendall’s Compound E” in a severely arthritic woman, and after several injections, she was free of pain and was able to walk. These dramatic early results were replicated in additional patients in 1949, but relief continued only as long as the drug, now named cortisone, was taken.
Within a few years, cortisone and related drugs were found to provide major benefits in scores of medical conditions, including allergies, asthma, cancers, and conditions affecting the skin, eyes, blood, and bowels. However, the price of cortisone’s sometimes lifesaving benefits was considerable. Cortisone caused major aberrations in the body’s metabolism, behavioral alterations, stomach ulcers, and major imbalances in salt and water, which impaired heart function.
Merck’s cortisone was almost immediately followed on the market by hydrocortisone (cortisol), the active form of cortisone in the body. Thereafter, numerous modifications made in their steroid chemistry produced drugs that are far more active at lower doses and that, more important, do not cause the retention of salt and water by the body. Still other steroids have been formulated for application to the skin and to be inhaled for the treatment of asthma. The 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Kendall, Hench, and Swiss collaborator/chemist Tadeus Reichstein.
SEE ALSO Aspirin (1899), Percorten (1939), Albuterol/Salbutamol (1968), Beclovent (1976), Endrel, Remicide, and Humira (1998).
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis. During his last years, his hands were completely deformed, and he had to wedge a paintbrush between his fingers to paint this 1910 self-portrait.