Irvine : UCI Professor Studies PCP’s Effect on Fetuses

The drug phencyclidine, commonly known as PCP or “angel dust,” may have a significantly greater effect on an unborn fetus than on the pregnant woman taking the drug, according to a UC Irvine medical professor.

Dr. Stephen C. Bondy, professor of community and environmental medicine at UC Irvine, found that the PCP remains longer in an unborn infant than in their mothers, apparently because the fetal liver cannot break down the drug effectively.

The concentration of PCP in fetal brains is more than 100 times higher than that found in their mothers, Bondy also found.

Bondy conducted his research with Dr. Gulzar Ahmad, analytical chemist at General Hospital in Riverside, and Leslie Hallsall, a research associate UC Irvine.

Following up on clinical reports by Ahmad on phencyclidine in newborn infants, Bondy tested pregnant rats with the drug, according to UC Irvine officials.

Ahmad had observed behavioral abnormalities in the newborns and discovered PCP in the infants’ urine, even when their mothers reported that they had not used the drug for at least three months.

The findings have led Bondy to conclude that ingestion of PCP by pregnant women, even for a relatively brief time, may result in prolonged and potentially harmful exposure of the fetus’ developing nervous system.

Bondy now plans to investigate the long-term behavioral effects on rats, exposed to PCP during pregnancy, as they grow into adults.