Salicylic Acid Can Fight Off Cancers

Can Salicylic Acid Treat Cancer?

Scientists have identified a brand new pathway through which salicylic acid, which is a key compound in the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs aspirin and diflunisal, stops infection and tumor development in cancer. Salicylic acid and diflunisal can both suppress two key proteins that support the control of gene expression in the course of the body. Through inhibiting these proteins, the two drugs block the activation of alternative proteins involved in infection and cell development, along with one linked to leukemia.

Scientists from the Gladstone Institutes have recognized a new pathway during which salicylic acid–a key compound in the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines aspirin and diflunisal stops cancer and inflammation.

Salicylic Acid and Gene Supression

In one study published in the journal eLife, the researchers found out that salicylic acid and diflunisal suppress two key proteins that can control gene expression in the body. These sister proteins, p300 and CREB-binding protein (CBP), are epigenetic regulators that manipulate proteins that are involved in infection or are concerned in telephone progress. By way of inhibiting p300 and CBP, salicylic acid and diflunisal block the activation of these proteins and preclude cell damage brought about by infection. This provides the primary concrete demonstration that both p300 and CBP will also be acted upon by medicinal drugs and can have essential medical implications.

According to the senior author of this study, Salicylic acid is one of the oldest drugs on the planet, dating back to the Egyptians and the Greeks, but we’re still discovering new things about it. Uncovering this pathway of infection that salicylic acid acts upon opens up a number of new scientific possibilities for these drugs.

Earlier studies conducted within the laboratory of co-creator Stephen D. Nimer, MD, director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and a collaborator of Verdin’s established a relationship between p300 and the leukemia protein AML1-ETO. In the current study, scientists at Gladstone and Sylvester labored together to test whether suppressing p300 with diflunisal would suppress leukemia progress in mice. As expected, diflunisal stopped cancer progression and contracted the tumors in the mouse model of leukemia.

Nimer added further, The ability to repurpose drugs that are already FDA-approved to be part of novel therapies for cancer patients is incredibly exciting. We have conducted a clinical trial of salicylic acid in patients with hematologic cancers and found it to be safe. Thus, this collaborative effort to develop novel epigenetic therapies is an important next step in our journey to find more effective treatment for leukemia patients.

The scientists are actually pursuing a clinical trial on the way to test the ability of salicylic acid to deal with patients with leukemia as a part of new combo remedies. Different possible scientific purposes for salicylic acid include other forms of melanoma, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and even neurodegenerative issues, akin to Alzheimer’s sickness. Prior research showed that a drug containing salicylic acid prevented the buildup of tau in neurons and prevented cognitive decline in a mouse model of dementia.

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