Pharmaceutical history - March 3rd - Albrecht Fleckenstein

Albrecht Fleckenstein(3 March 1917 – 4 April 1992) was a German pharmacologist and physiologist best known for his discovery of calcium channel blockers.

Albrecht Fleckenstein was born on 3 March 1917 in Aschaffenburg, Germany. He received his medical training in Würzburg and Vienna. While he was engaged in this work he became interested in the interaction of cations with the contractile processes of cardiac muscle. This led him to report, in 1964, that prenylamineand verapamil have the same inhibitory action on the excitation-contraction coupling as calcium withdrawal from the Ringer’s solution. He continued to use verapamil, originally known as iproveratril, as a tool in the initial pharmacologic studies that led him toward the discovery of the “calcium antagonists” in 1968– 1969. It was at this time that Dr. H. G. Kroneberg gave Fleckenstein a sample of nifedipine with the suggestion that it could also be a calcium antagonist. Fleckenstein confirmed that nifedipine was indeed not only a calcium antagonist, but also one of the most active ones he “ever had in his hands.” Twenty more years of intensive pharmacologic work stimulated extensive theoretical and clinical research and development with important therapeutic consequences regarding calcium antagonists. In time, with verapamil leading the group, these antagonists were to become a new group of drugs for the treatment of angina pectoris, hypertension, and certain types of atrial arrhythmias. Fleckenstein also discovered the relationship of calcium to necrotization of cardiac muscle by isoproterenol. He discovered that blocking high-energy phosphates, resulting from excessive activation of calcium-dependent ATPase, prevented subsequent necrosis of the heart muscle. All this was attributable to the action of calcium antagonists.

In 1986, Fleckenstein received the Ernst Jung Prize, awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. In 1991, he also received the Albert Einstein World Award of Science.

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_Fleckenstein
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6654477/pdf/CLC-27-710.pdf
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