Although no one knows for sure, it probably activates the sleep center in the forebrain. Unlike barbiturates, however, thalidomide does not depress the respiratory drive. Thalidomide and Wasting Syndromes TNF-a has a number of functions and effects other than modulating the immune system. Some severely ill patients lose significant amounts of weight. This is because the immune system is in hyperdrive, producing an abundance of TNF-a.
Weight loss is a very complex phenomenon involving multiple factors.
TNF-a is only one contributor, but as evidence has shown, a very important one. Thalidomide has been experimentally used to treat weight loss with much success. L. Couderc and other researchers first presented the use of thalidomide in AIDS-related wasting in 1994. The three patients he treated all gained approximately 10 pounds within three weeks, without a demonstrable effect on CD4 lymphocyte counts or other measures of immune system function. Later that year, two groups of researchers, from Mexico and Rockefeller University, each presented a randomized, double-blind study showing a statistically significant weight gain in patients taking thalidomide compared to those who did not.