Aspirin •

Tarantula Venom Could Be Used as Painkiller

March 2, 2016 By Troy Rubenson Leave a Comment

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New painkillers might be derived from tarantula venom

STATES CHRONICLE – Leaving aside dangerous diseases the world is struggling with all of us have experienced all sorts of aches throughout our lives. The most common are probably headaches. The most used drugs for pain are ibuprofen and aspirin.

These drugs are very common and can be purchased without a medical prescription. However, in some cases, they might not work as well as we’d hoped. According to a recent study, we might replace the common painkillers with something very different, like tarantula venom.

Scientists believe that the venom, a peptide toxin called ProTx-II has high potency and can selectively inhibit pain receptors in our brain. The researchers determined that the venom could bind to Nav 1.7, a very important pain receptor.

In order to make sure, the venom is not randomly invading the brain, a team of researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia are exploring the paths taken by PRTX-II to bind with brain cells to inhibit pain.

Besides the common painkillers, Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin are also largely used, but can have several negative side effects and can be addictive. With the tarantula peptide toxin, things go really smooth, as the neuronal cell membranes attract it to the neurons, concentrating it to the specific pain receptor needed to inhibit the pain sensation.

Although animal venoms have been used for therapeutic purposes, only a few of them have been used for creating drugs. Moreover, many people have arachnophobia and know that spider venom is dangerous and could, in some cases, be fatal.

If researchers manage to convince science authorities to create a drug derived from tarantula venom which will help ease the pain of many people, the tarantula will have much to gain as well.

In this way, people living with chronic pain will get relief and tarantulas will get some credit and people might be less scared of the creature. However, the drug has not been developed yet, and it is not known for sure when it will happen.

Let’s hope scientists will manage to produce and introduce it to the market so people will get rid of Vicodin or other painkillers they are addicted to.

Image source: wikimedia.org

Aspirin Helps Women with Recent Pregnancy Loss Conceive

April 11, 2014 By Deborah Cobing Leave a Comment

We’ve always known that aspirin was a magic drug and that it can help us in various ways, such as improve colon cancer survival, as a new study suggests, but it appears that aspirin is really pulling its weight these days and it can actually help women with recent pregnancy loss conceive. That sounds a bit too good to be true, we know, but read on and see for yourself.

A recent study, published in the online general medical journal The Lancet, discovered that a daily dose of aspirin increases the chances of conceiving a child and delivering that child to term in women who have suffered a recent pregnancy loss.

Aspirin and Women with Recent Pregnancy Loss

Many doctors prescribe low dose aspirin to women with recent pregnancy loss and who want to conceive again, but up until now, there was no proof that this practice actually works. Now, a study lead by doctor Enrique Schisterman (chief of the Edipemiology Branch in Bethesda) carried out a comprehensive study (the largest of its kind) on 1,000 women with a history of miscarriage. He divided the women in two groups, a placebo and an aspirin group.

The aspirin group took folic acid and a low dose of aspirin (81 mg) every day and the placebo group took the same folic acid and a dummy pill. The folic acid is recommended to all women who plan to conceive, as it reduces the risk of giving birth to children with neural tube defects (which affect the spine and the brain).

The women were closely monitored for up to six menstrual cycles; during this time, the women were trying to get pregnant. The ones that got pregnant stopped taking the aspirin at around 35 weeks.

The results of the study were: 13% of the women who took the aspirin and got pregnant had another miscarriage, compared to 12% who took the placebo pills. 58% of the women who took the aspirin got pregnant and carried the child to term, compared to 53% of the women who took the placebo drug.

Those results aren’t amazing at all, as aspirin did almost nothing to reduce pregnancy losses. There’s a catch, though; after careful analysis of the data, the researchers discovered that women who experienced only one recent miscarriage had a higher rate of pregnancy and carrying the child to term while they were taking the aspirin. Here is where the statistics are amazing: 78% of the aspirin group and while 66% of the placebo group conceived, and 62% of the women who took aspirin went on to have live births, while only 53% of the women who took the placebo.

Why is aspirin so good? Because it increases the blood flow to the uterus; more studies are needed to decide if aspirin helps improve fertility.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you taking aspirin? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Aspirin Linked to Improved Colon Cancer Survival

April 3, 2014 By Deborah Cobing Leave a Comment

There are many cancer breakthroughs being made on a daily basis, for example, they just found the cause of a rare and aggressive ovarian cancer, but today we are going to take a look at how an age-old and simple medicine, aspirin, is improving colon cancer survival.

Aspirin has been used for decades to treat mild to moderate pain and relieve inflammation, but a new study has shown that patients diagnosed with colon cancer have better survival if they take low doses of this drug.

The study was published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal and it was conducted by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, led by Dr. Marlies S. Reimers. Curious about what they found? Read on!

Aspirin Improves Colon Cancer Survival

The American Cancer Society says that there will be almost 999 cases of colon cancer diagnosed in 2014. Most of the colon cancer is diagnosed in the late stages, where the 5-year survival rate is low (12%); early diagnosed colon cancer has a great 5-year survival rate – 90%.

There have been past studies which have shown that aspirin improves colon cancer survival, but this new study has come up with new evidence to support it.

They analyzed tumor tissue from 1000 patients will colon cancer, most of which were diagnosed with stage III or lower cancer. The results showed that 182 patients used aspirin in low-doses. There were 69 deaths in this lot, 37.9%. Of the rest of 817 patients who didn’t use aspirin, 396 dies, 48.5%

The researchers could say that low-doses of aspirin does indeed improve colon cancer survival, but unfortunately the team of researchers can’t figure out how aspirin manages to do what it does, in a molecular sense. They’re guessing that the drug affects the cancer cells and how they change into metastatic deposits.

Do you use aspirin on a daily basis? What are your thoughts on aspirin and colon cancer survival? Is aspirin really a miracle drug? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.

Cancer (Colon, Lung) inversely related to intake of Aspirin

August 16, 2013 By James Faulkner Leave a Comment

Aspirin, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug has shown some relation with the advancement of the colon cancer patients. A recent study has suggested that patients who were diagnosed with colon cancer and were on aspirin recently has shown less advanced tumors during diagnosis compared to those who were not on aspirin.

The researchers have also revealed that there is also considerable evidence that aspirin to some extent has inverse relation to lung cancer as well.

The study included researching the Swedish cancer directory. Over 80,000 patient’s records were studied who were diagnosed with lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

But it should be noted that researchers has also advised that it doesn’t mean that everyone who are diagnosed with cancer or at risk of diagnosis should be taking aspirin.

It has been reported in the past and it is among the serious side effects of aspirin overdose that regular and heavy usage of aspirin can result in gastro-intestinal bleeding which can result in serious complications, including death.

However, the researchers has also agreed that there is no proven or exact mechanism known for the relation of aspirin and cancer and further research to understand the relation is needed.

It can also be said that it needs lot of time to apply these studies into real life treatments. In the past there were also reports that some viruses also shrunk tumors particularly the tumors of Liver. However only time will tell how applicable the aspirin study related to cancer could prove beneficial.

Aspirin and Women with Recent Pregnancy Loss

Aspirin Improves Colon Cancer Survival

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