Where’s the Aspirin
Aspirin is the traditional anti-inflammatory agent. Many of us grew up with the quintessential doctoring phrase, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” Aspirin stops inflammation in several ways. Like all drugs, it interacts with many different proteins/enzymes. In fact it interacts so intimately with the inflammatory system that it suggests that the process of inflammation may require an aspirin-like molecule to function normally. Aspirin Binds to Multiple Enzymes of Inflammation Aspirin is observed to reduce inflammation. That means that ingested aspirin tablet dissolve in the stomach and pass through the intestines into the blood stream and subsequently bath cells of the blood and the endothelium that lines the blood vessels. In order to reach the blood stream, the aspirin must pass through the intestinal cells. That passage requires binding to a protein transport molecule. Cells responding to an inflammatory signal (NFkB, transcription factor is activated) synthesize...