Aspirin (Acetylsalicylic acid) is a potent and selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase (COX) with a broad range of pharmacological activities including anti-inflammation and pain relief. Multiple studies have accumulated sufficient evidence to establish the association between the use of aspirin and a reduced risk of cancers including prostate cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer. Aspirin suppresses ovarian cancer cells harboring COX-1 by acting as histone deacetylase inhibitors to up-regulate cell cycle arrest protein p21. Aspirin also inhibits the expression of COX-2 in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes resulting in reduced PG production and the down-regulation of ERK and NF-KB respectively.
Reference
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Duan Y, Chen F, Zhang A, Zhu B, Sun J, Xie Q, Chen Z. Aspirin inhibits lipopolysaccharide-induced COX-2 expression and PGE2 production in porcine alveolar macrophages by modulating protein kinase C and protein tyrosine phosphatase activity. BMB Rep. 2013. pii: 2320. [Epub ahead of print]