WASHINGTON: Two test-tube Studies suggest that ordinary aspirin may keep HIV infected people from getting full-blown AIDS, researchers have said.
In a study to be published in the journal Science, Yale researchers have found that aspirin and its chemical precursor, sodium salicylate, work in part by blocking a protein called NF-kappab, which plays a crucial role in triggering the body’s frontline immune response.
Researchers Elizabeth Kopp and Sankar Ghosh also found that, by inhibiting NFkappab, aspirin substantially prevented the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS from replicating itself.
Scientists since the early 1970s have known that aspirin blocks Molecules known as prostaglandins, which are chemicals that play a role in pain and inflammation.
The new research, however, is the first indication that aspirin also acts directly on NFkappab, a molecule that is not related to prostaglandin activity but nonetheless is the key instigator of the body’s early immune response to injury, infection, or stress.
‘The researchers found that aspirin substitutes, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, block only prostaglandin activity and not NFkappab.
‘The research “shows this protein is an important target and suggests that if you can find a drug that takes care of this molecule only, maybe that would be helpful for HIV patients,” Dr.Ghosh, an immunobiologist at Yale University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the lead author of the science paper said.
Dr.Ghosh emphasized, however, that “this is a preliminary laboratory study and people should wait for clinical trials to see whether aspirin is shown to be beneficial in patients.””
Article extracted from this publication >> September 16, 1994
