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Fifty years with aspirin and platelets
Author(s) -
Patrono Carlo
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
british journal of pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.432
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1476-5381
pISSN - 0007-1188
DOI - 10.1111/bph.15966
Subject(s) - aspirin , cyclooxygenase , antithrombotic , platelet , medicine , pharmacology , thromboxane , chemistry , biochemistry , enzyme
In 2021, we reached the 50th anniversary of the publication of Sir John Vane's seminal paper in Nature New Biology describing the experiments supporting his mechanistic hypothesis that inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis might explain the main pharmacological effects of aspirin and aspirin‐like drugs, that is, reduction in pain, fever and inflammation. Bengt Samuelsson's subsequent discoveries elucidating the cyclooxygenase pathway of platelet arachidonic acid metabolism motivated my research interest towards measuring platelet thromboxane A 2 biosynthesis as a tool to investigate the clinical pharmacology of cyclooxygenase inhibition by aspirin in health and disease. What followed was a long, winding road of clinical research leading to the characterization of low‐dose aspirin as a life‐saving antiplatelet drug that still represents the cornerstone of antithrombotic therapy. Having witnessed and participated in these 50 years of aspirin research, I thought of providing a personal testimony of how things developed and eventually led to a remarkable success story of independent research.