Aspirine tegen kanker.*

Uit een Engelse studie blijkt dat het oude "wondermedicijn” aspirine de groei van kankercellen kan voorkomen. Het hoofdbestanddeel van aspirine is acetylsalicylzuur een stof die van nature aangetroffen wordt o.a. in wilgenhout en al duizenden jaren gebruikt wordt tegen pijnen en ontstekingen. Eerder studies hadden al laten zien dat aspirine kan helpen bij kanker doch nu is het mechanisme gevonden wat kanker bestrijdt. Al een lage dosis aspirine pakt behalve de ontstekingen ook het molecuul NfkappaB aan. Dit molecuul zorgt voor de vorming van nieuwe bloedvaten. De vorming van nieuwe bloedvaten is essentieel voor de groei van kankercellen, zonder nieuwe bloedvaten kan een tumor niet groeien.

Fighting Cancer With "The Wonder Drug" Aspirin?

When looking for new weapons in the war on cancer, scientists should turn to their medicine cabinets for an age-old remedy--aspirin. According to scientists at the University of Newcastle (UK), aspirin has cancer-fighting effects that extend beyond already understood Cox inhibitors. This finding, which appears in the October 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal, provides important clues to how aspirin works in cancer and in inflammation: aspirin reduces the formation of blood vessels that fuel developing tumors. Without new blood vessels (formed through a process called angiogenesis) tumors cannot grow. With this information, researchers can pursue new lines of investigation that could ultimately yield an entirely new type of cancer-fighting drug.
In the study, the researchers show that aspirin acts on the signaling molecule NFkappaB, which is known to trigger the formation of new blood vessels, an important part of tumor development. Additionally, Newcastle researchers found a dose-dependent relationship between blood vessel formation and the amount of aspirin used in the study. This new finding confirms and extends earlier evidence suggesting that NFkappaB is a target of aspirin action in inflammation; now researchers can work out exactly how signals interrupted by aspirin can control not only inflammation, but the biology of tumor growth as well.
"Aspirin has always been touted as a 'wonder drug,'" said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "and this study shows that we are still learning about the many actions of this amazing drug."

Aspirin Stunts Tumor Growth By Reducing Blood Vessel Formation

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) could stunt tumor growth by stopping the formation of blood vessels which nourish tumors, say researchers from Institute of Human Genetics, University of Newcastle, UK.
You can read about this new study in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
Aspirin, used to treat pain, is also used to protect from heart attack. Previous studies had indicated that aspirin probably has some cancer protecting qualities. The researchers in this study wanted to find out what the possible mechanisms behind these preventative qualities were.
The scientists wanted to observe how aspirin affects tumor growth by adding it to endothelial cells. Endothelial cells are involved in angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels). They found that quite low concentrations of aspirin significantly undermined their ability to form blood vessels.
Tumors need blood vessels for oxygen and nutrients - without them they cannot grow. Cancer also uses blood vessels to spread to different parts of the body. The scientists found that aspirin restricts the blood supply to the tumor - in effect, not allowing it to grow bigger than a pea.
The researchers believe this discovery could lead the way to new cancer treatments. The problem with aspirin in its present form is that long-term intake can lead to serious gastric bleeding. The team wants to look at the molecular targets of aspirin - the parts of it that stop the formation of new blood vessels - and see if safer drugs can be developed. In other words, create drugs that combat cancer but don't cause gastric bleeding.

History of Aspirin
-- Hippocrates (500 BC) described a bitter powder, extracted from willow bark, that eased pain and reduced fevers.
-- Ancient texts along a similar vein come from Sumeria, Lebanon and Assyria.
-- Cherokee Indians used the inner bark of the willow tree for medicinal purposes.
-- In 1763 Rev. Edward Stone, Oxfordshire, UK, said the bark of the willow helped bring fevers down.
-- In 1897, Bayer chemist, Dr. Felix Hoffmann, in his search for better treatment for his father who suffered from rheumatism, synthesised acetylsalicylic acid (ASA).
Therapeutic levels of aspirin and salicylate directly inhibit a model of angiogenesis through a Cox-independent mechanism
Gillian M. Borthwick, A. Sarah Johnson, Matthew Partington, John Burn, Robert Wilson and Helen M. Arthur
The FASEB Journal. 2006;20:2009-2016.
Click here to see abstract online
(Okt. 2006)  

 

 

 

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