Mesothelioma sufferers rarely hear “take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” But that might be common in the future if a recent study holds true.Researchers at The City College of New York report they have developed a new hybrid aspirin that may be the latest potent cancer-fighter.
In a study published in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, scientists report that they have developed a new aspirin compound that curbed the growth of 11 different types of human cancer cells in culture. Some of the cancers controlled in the lab included pancreatic, lung and leukemia.
Like mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, many of the tested cancers are aggressive and are difficult to treat and control. Most often physicians treat mesothelioma with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, mesothelioma has proven to be resistant to many of the treatments and there is currently no known cure.
One issue with chemotherapy, and other drugs used to treat mesothelioma, is that the medicine is highly toxic leading to a variety of side effects including low blood cell counts, thinning or brittle hair, loss of appetite and weight, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. These can be debilitating and often lead patients and their doctors to halt treatment, as the risks outweigh the benefits of the treatment. This new aspirin, however, has been found to be perhaps safer than the current off-the-shelf aspirin.
“The key components of this new compound are that it is very, very potent and yet it has minimal toxicity to the cells,” said Associate Professor Khosrow Kashfi, the principal investigator.
The researchers reported the amped-up aspirin had nearly 100,000 times greater potency than aspirin alone 24 hours after treatment. After 72 hours, the potency grew to 250,000 times more potent against human colon cancer.
Named the “NOSH” aspirin, the drug is a combination of nitric oxide (NO), which helps protect the stomach lining, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which has been shown to enhance aspirin’s cancer-fighting ability. When the two are combined, the result is a hybrid drug that is more effective than either of the components used alone.
The researchers found that the NOSH-aspirin treatment showed promise in shrinking tumors and slowing cancer growth. In fact, the compound shrank human colon cancer tumors by 85 percent in live animals without adverse effects. In a second study, mice bearing human colon cancer tumors were given oral NOSH-aspirin which “caused cancer cells to self-destruct, inhibited the proliferation of the cells and significantly reduced tumor growth without any signs of toxicity in the mice.”
The researchers admit the use of the NOSH-aspirin is still years away and it will need to undergo clinical trials and toxicity testing before approval.
For the 3,000 Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, clinical trials are critical to offering the patients the opportunity to receive new, potentially more effective therapies. If this novel treatment continues to prove as successful on humans as on mice, it could be the breakthrough all mesothelioma sufferers and their physicians have been waiting for.
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