chemistry

Sodium aurothiomalate

Sodium aurothiomalate is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sodium aurothiomalate rather than just read about it. In short: Sodium aurothiomalate (INN, known in the United States as gold sodium thiomalate) is a gold compound that is used for its immunosuppressive anti-rheumatic effects. Along with an orally-administered gold salt, auranofin, it is one of only two gold compounds currently employed in modern medicine.

Key takeaways

Sodium aurothiomalate belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sodium aurothiomalate to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sodium aurothiomalate from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sodium aurothiomalate (INN, known in the United States as gold sodium thiomalate) is a gold compound that is used for its immunosuppressive anti-rheumatic effects. Along with an orally-administered gold salt, auranofin, it is one of only two gold compounds currently employed in modern medicine.

Medical uses It is primarily given once or twice weekly by intramuscular injection for moderate-severe rheumatoid arthritis. It was also once used to treat tuberculosis, though later trials showed it to be harmful and ineffective for that purpose.

Adverse effects Its most common side effects are digestive (mostly dyspepsia, mouth swelling, nausea, vomiting and taste disturbance), vasomotor (mostly flushing, fainting, dizziness, sweating, weakness, palpitations, shortness of breath and blurred vision) or dermatologic (usually itchiness, rash, local irritation near to the injection site and hair loss) in nature, although conjunctivitis, blood dyscrasias, kidney damage, joint pain, muscle aches/pains and liver dysfunction are also common. Less commonly, it can cause gastrointestinal bleeding, dry mucous membranes and gingivitis. Rarely it can cause aplastic anaemia, ulcerative enterocolitis, difficulty swallowing, angiooedema, pneumonitis, pulmonary fibrosis, hepatotoxicity, cholestatic jaundice, peripheral neuropathy, Guillain–Barré syndrome, encephalopathy, encephalitis and photosensitivity.

Pharmacology Its precise mechanism of action is unknown but sodium aurothiomalate is known to inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins. It also modulates phagocytic cells and inhibits class II major histocompatibility complex-peptide interactions. It is also known that it inhibits the following enzymes:

Acid phosphatase Beta-glucuronidase Elastase Cathepsin G Thrombin Microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1

History of use Reports of favorable use of the compound were published in France in 1929 by Jacques Forestier. The use of gold salts was then a controversial treatment and was not immediately accepted by the international community. Success was found in the treatment of Raoul Dufy's joint pain by the use of gold salts in 1940; "(the treatment) brought in a few weeks such a spectacular sense of healing, that Dufy ... boasted of again having the ability to catch a tram on the move." Along with aurothioglucose, sodium aurothiomalate was discontinued worldwide in 2019 by its manufacturer Sanofi due to a worldwide gold shortage, leaving generic forms of Auranofin the only gold-based drug available in the United States.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sodium aurothiomalate

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sodium aurothiomalate claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sodium aurothiomalate before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sodium aurothiomalate ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sodium aurothiomalate

In research: Sodium aurothiomalate appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sodium aurothiomalate in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sodium aurothiomalate is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics French inventions, Gold(I) compounds, Gold-based antirheumatic drugs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sodium aurothiomalate outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sodium aurothiomalate in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sodium aurothiomalate means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sodium aurothiomalate out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sodium aurothiomalate in simple terms?

Why does Sodium aurothiomalate matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sodium aurothiomalate?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sodium aurothiomalate.