A team at the University of Malta is looking into the effect of aspirin on genes, to understand how this painkiller destroys cancer cells.

A daily dose of aspirin is prescribed to patients at risk of cardiovascular diseases but recent research has shown that aspirin helps prevent colorectal and prostate cancer among other types of cancers.

Studies have even started looking into whether it could prevent cancer recurrence. The largest clinical trial ever carried out to examine whether aspirin can avoid cancers from returning has begun in the UK.

However, the mode of action of aspirin in cancer prevention is not fully known yet.

Researchers, led by Rena Balzan from the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, are now trying to find out how aspirin distinguishes cancer from normal cells.

“We are looking at what may be happening at the gene level in normal and in cancer cells. This study will provide future medical scientists with information necessary on which they can build their research,” she says.

The team is using yeast cells, which comprise one of the most powerful biological models to study human diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and to develop new drug treatments.

“Understanding how a cell recognises and repairs damage, or on the contrary fails to cope with stress and dies, is essential to understand the biological basis of several human pathologies including cancer,” explains Balzan.

For this reason, the team is using a set of yeast cells modelled on cancer cells and another set which behaves like normal healthy cells.

Balzan and her colleagues have in the past shown that aspirin kicks off a type of cell death in yeast cells modelled on cancer cells. This is known as programmed cell death or apoptosis.

Initial findings from this research show that aspirin decreases a factor that is important in the energy production of yeast models of cancer cells. This means that in halting the energy production of these cells, they are programmed for death and hence get eliminated.

On the other hand, aspirin does not affect the energy production of normal yeast cells which thrive very well in the presence of this drug.

The findings could indicate why aspirin attacks cancer cells and not normal cells in an organism and they could even shed light on the link between aspirin intake in children and young adults following a bout of influenza or chicken pox, and the development of Reye’s syndrome – a potentially fatal syndrome that may damage the liver and brain.

The four-year research, which kicked off in January 2015, is being financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology through the Research and Innovation Technology Development Programme.

The work is being carried out with the collaboration of Gianluca Farrugia who gave an oral presentation of the project at the 11th International Meeting on Yeast Apoptosis held at Porto, Portugal, last October. This project attracted considerable interest as a promising line of research into the mechanism of action of aspirin in cancer prevention.

Warning: Scientists warn that the drug should not be used without medical advice as it is not suitable for everyone. Doctors warn against the daily intake of aspirin, unless advised, as it can cause side effects such as ulcers and bleeding from the stomach.

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