From: sheriffcoltrane23x@gmail.com   
      
   Researchers investigate aspirin as an effective treatment against Alzheimer's   
   and Parkinson's disease   
   AFP Relaxnews 10:59 AM IST Dec 01, 2015   
                
      
   A new study published last week has suggested that a component in everyday   
   aspirin may be effective in helping treat neurodegenerative diseases such as   
   Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.   
   The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, was carried out by researchers   
   at the Boyce Thompson Institute and John Hopkins University, USA. The team   
   found that the plant hormone salicylic acid, a main component of aspirin,   
   binds itself to an enzyme in    
   the body, GAPDH (Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase), which can   
   contribute to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and   
   Huntington's. GAPDH normally plays an important role in producing energy in   
   the body, but when there is an    
   excess of free radicals, the enzyme becomes modified and enters the cells in   
   the body, enhancing protein turnover in the cells and causing them to die. It   
   is this cell death that contributes to neurodegenerative diseases.   
   By binding to the enzyme and stopping it from entering the cell and causing   
   cell death, salicylic acid could be an effective treatment against such   
   diseases. There is already an existing treatment for Parkinson's, deprenyl,   
   which also works by blocking    
   GAPDH from entering into the cells.   
   The team also looked at a natural derivative of salicylic acid from the   
   Chinese medical herb licorice and a lab-synthesized derivative and observed   
   them bind to GAPDH more tightly than salicylic acid, making them even more   
   effective in blocking GAPDH    
   from moving into the cell. In addition to the results from this study, earlier   
   this year the team also found that salicylic acid could be effective in   
   targeting a protein in the body, HMGB1, which causes inflammation and is   
   associated with several    
   diseases, including arthritis, lupus, sepsis, atherosclerosis and certain   
   cancers, with low levels of salicylic acid blocking the protein inflammatory   
   actions; again the licorice and lab-derived versions of salicylic acids   
   appeared to be more   
   TAP   
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   effective than salicylic acid itself, as much as 40 to 70 times more potent.   
   Senior author Daniel Klessig, commenting on the results said, "A better   
   understanding of how salicylic acid and its derivatives regulate the   
   activities of GAPDH and HMGB1, coupled with the discovery of much more potent   
   synthetic and natural derivatives    
   of salicylic acid, provide great promise for the development of new and better   
   salicylic acid-based treatments of a wide variety of prevalent, devastating   
   diseases."   
      
      
   http://m.ibnlive.com/news/lifestyle/researchers-investigate-aspi   
   in-as-an-effective-treatment-against-alzheimers-and-parkinsons-d   
   sease-1170862.html   
      
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