Do you have a headache, toothache, arthritis pain? Did the baby spike a sudden fever? Tylenol to the rescue! Acetaminophen (Tylenol’s generic name) has been a popular over the counter drug for treating pain and fever for several decades. I was surprised recently to learn that scientists still do not know how it actually works.
Acetaminophen’s story begins by accident in the 1880’s. German physicians Arnold Cahn and Paul Hepp were testing naphthalene as a treatment for worms. While the drug had no effect on the patient’s worms, they noticed it did reduce fever. Upon further investigation they discovered that there had been a mistake. The naphthalene they thought they were administering was in fact acetanilide, a derivative of coal-tar used at the time in making synthetic dyes.
They developed a drug from their discovery called Antifebrin. It was used to treat both fever and pain. Unfortunately, some patients who took the drug turned blue because of a side effect that impaired oxygen transport in the blood.
Modifications of the drug were made to try to avoid this unpleasant side effect. Eventually acetaminophen was discovered to be the chemical responsible for reducing pain and fever, but the discovery was largely ignored until the 1940s.
In 1948, Bernard Brodie and Julius Axelrod determined that acetaminophen, unlike acetanilide, was safe, effective and did not cause people to turn blue. It went on to the market in 1955 under the name Tylenol. Today the global sales for acetaminophen are over $9.5 billion per year.
Since entering the market much research has been done, but it is still unclear exactly how Tylenol works in the body. To most people this may seem to be a small and insignificant curiosity. What parent hasn’t been grateful to see their child’s fever start to come down once the medicine kicks in? How many ever stop to ask why it works? As long as it works, what does it matter why?
Beyond satisfying the curiosity of scientists, discovering how acetaminophen works in the body could lead to better, safer versions of the drug, perhaps without the potential for liver damage. That knowledge could also help us better understand pain, which could lead to improved treatments for pain management. In an age where we take for granted the amazing medicines readily available to us, it is humbling to think how much we still do not understand, and exciting to imagine what might still be discovered in our lifetime.
Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy or to stump your in-laws.
