Understanding Why Aspirin is a Magic Drug for Inflammation

New insights about how the drug aspirin works discussed in the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting might help to find safer aspirin alternatives and for improving anticancer drugs given during cancer treatment. Aspirin is the commonly used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug in the world. It is prescribed to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation in a treatment plan. Approximately 29 million people in the U.S. take it daily to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Even though this drug has been available commercially since the late 1800s, scientists have not yet fully elucidated its detailed mechanism of action and cellular targets. Aspirin inhibits the cyclooxygenase enzyme, or COX, important molecule involved in the inflammatory response. Researchers have discovered more about this process.

Finding Why Aspirin Works So Well for Inflammation

Researchers found that aspirin controls transcription factors required for cytokine expression during inflammation while also influencing many other inflammatory proteins and noncoding RNAs that are critically linked to inflammation and immune response.

They also showed that aspirin slows the breakdown of the amino acid tryptophan into its metabolite kynurenine by inhibiting associated enzymes called indoleamine dioxygenases, or IDOs. Tryptophan metabolism plays a central role in the inflammation and immune response.

Since aspirin is a COX inhibitor, this suggests potential interplay between COX and IDO1 during inflammation. IDO1 is an important target for immunotherapy, a type of cancer treatment that helps the body’s immune system seek out and destroy cancer cells.

Because COX inhibitors modulate the COX–IDO1 axis during inflammation, the researchers predict that COX inhibitors might also be useful as drugs for immunotherapy. Researchers are now creating a series of small molecules that modulate COX–IDO1 and will explore their potential use as anti-inflammatory drugs and immunotherapeutic agents.

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Source-Eurekalert