The Mysteries of Aspirin

Of all the medicines known to man, perhaps none is more widely used than aspirin. Since 1900, the ubiquitous white pills have been taken by the millions to relieve headaches and cold symptoms, help fight fevers and ease the pain of arthritis. But despite its universal use, aspirin remains a mysterious medicine. Though few question that it works, generations of scientists have sought without success to explain how.

Persuasive Proof. Now a group of British researchers have come up with a partial answer. In a series of papers published recently in the scientific journal Nature, they report that aspirin and its close pharmaceutical relatives tend to halt the production of prostaglandins, hormone-like substances first discovered in the 1930s. Although their exact role is still incompletely understood, prostaglandins occur in semen, menstrual fluid and a wide variety of human tissues. They are known to be involved with the functions of such diverse structures as the heart, bronchial tubes, blood vessels and stomach.

For several years, doctors have suspected a link between aspirin and the prostaglandins, but the findings of the Britons, who conducted their work at London's Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, provide the first persuasive proof. In one series of experiments, Dr. John Vane found that aspirin-like drugs impeded the synthesis of a prostaglandin known to cause fever in cats. In another, Dr. Vane and his colleagues Sergio Ferreira and Salvador Moncada found that aspirin blocked the release of prostaglandins in a dog's spleen that had been removed and kept functioning artificially. In a third, Drs. John Brian Smith and Anthony Willis showed that aspirin prevented production of prostaglandins in human blood platelets.

Their discoveries are significant, opening the door not only to a better understanding of these important hormones, but also to the development of new and more effective drugs for such ailments as rheumatic fever and arthritis. They may also open up new fields in the study of human fertility. Prostaglandins are presently being used experimentally to induce abortions. The Britons' new discovery of aspirin's effect on their production may lead to the development of aspirin-like drugs to prevent miscarriage.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.