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Thalidomide's anti-angiogenesis (blocking of blood vessel development) features, which led to birth abnormalities when it was given to pregnant women, are the same characteristics that have spurred interest in its therapeutic potential in other fields. At the annual meeting of the European Society for Human Genetics on Sunday, Professor Miikka Vikkula of the de Duve Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, presented findings from a study on the use of thalidomide in patients with severe arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). These results show a significant reduction in symptoms and an improvement in quality of life as a result, and were just published in Nature Cardiovascular Research. AVMs are aberrant blood vessel clusters that connect veins and arteries and alter regular blood flow. They cause cardiac problems, severe discomfort, bleeding, and deformities of the affected bodily portion. They are typically congenital and frequently don't show until a pers...