Wanting to see if there was more to this study, I looked to see if there were any other articles relating to the subject. I found another article in the Cancer Prevention Research Journal, which talked about how Aspirin should be considered as a preventative measure, especially in countries that have limited access to resources that could prevent the disease.
The second article states that they have linked HIV and PGE2 (COX-2 or prostoglandin E2) for several cancers, include cervical cancer. One of the doctors who is doing research on the study, Dr. Andrew Dunnenberg, Director of the Weill Cornell Cancer Center, says that "the findings in this study provides new insight into the link between viral infection and inflammation, which are 2 known drivers of cancer development." The main goal of this study is to see if developing nations that do not have access to the type of health care that developed nations have, can have access to a cheap and accessible treatment that will successfully decrease the number of cancer in those populations.
So how is this a possibility? Is it truly possible that every day aspirin can be the answer to cancer?
With my main question being... Is there a specific pathway that the aspirin blocks or inhibits and if so what?
Apparently it is possible, according to Aspirin Has Antitumor Effects via Expression of Calpain Gene in Cervical Cancer Cells which was written in 2008.
The article states that aspirin infibits cyclooxygenases and that it leads to apoptosis. The study conducted looked for a mechanism where aspirin caused apoptosis in HeLa cells and the effects that aspirin had on gene expression. They found that mutant type calpain gene was upregulated by aspirin. A study was done on mice and the results showed that aspirin induced calpain creates an antitumor effect by means of caspase-3 in cervical cancer cells.
So the methods that aspirin can basically take to stop cancer are as follows: (these are a quick summary of each section, read the article for the in-depth details.)
1. Apoptosis Analysis
HeLa Cells were plated into a 24-well plate and would be given various doses of aspirin. Cells were then stained in order to see if apoptosis was occurring. They also looked at the amount of cells in G0/G1, S and G2/M phase of the cell cycle to assess the flow of DNA content.
2. Differential mRNA Display RT-PCR and Cloning
The total amount of RNA would be extracted from the cells with a reagent and the monolayers were washed with a RNase inhibitor. Primers were used to turn on reverse transcription of total RNA into first stranded cDNA. These bands were cloned into a vector and the plasmid with the insert was purified and sequenced.
3. Real-Time Quantitative PCR
Looking at the assay to quantify the amount of calpain mRNA and primers and probes were used for the mutant type calpain as well as the Beta-actin gene. To measure the abundance of the sample, the calpalin sequence was divided by the Beta-Actin sequence.
4. Transfection of Calpain cDNA and Cell Growth Assay
The mutant type calpain cDNA was recovered by primers. The products were then cloned into a vector which was transfected into the HeLa cells then measured for cell growth.
5. Enzymatic Assay for Caspase-3 Activity
Cells were plated and treated and the activity if the caspase-3 was measured using an enzyme substrate. The enzyme activity was expressed as relative fluorescence units/mg of protein.
6. Tumorigenicity
Mice of 4–6 weeks of age were gathered in groups of 5 and injected with HeLa, pCR/HeLa, and pCRCAL/HeLa
cells. Statistic values where taken and it was found that the probability values of aspirin "fighting" of cancer was significant in favor of the aspirin.
Aspirin has shown to stop the proliferation of cervical adenocarcinomal cells which was affected by the time and the amount of the dose. Another conclusion made was that aspirin plays a role in the inhibition of the formation of tumors through the activation of the calpain gene which leads to the activation of capase-3.
THIS IS NOT TO SAY THAT YOU SHOULD TAKE AN ASPIRIN A DAY IN ORDER TO PREVENT CANCER. There have been some studies done that say that taking an aspirin a day will actually cause cancer, but as these have not been conducted on a large scale many in the medical community don't find it sound, but just in case DON'T DO IT!!
I was really intrigued by this study. It made me wonder if there was a way to use the research to try to find more ways to inhibit cells possibly through the transduction cascade.
