The Art of Chemistry

To the science of chemistry
In the pursuit of truth
To the art of chemistry
For the welfare of man
To the teaching of youth
In a science
Ministrant of sciences

(quote from the Baker Hall, the home of chemistry, at Cornell University)

It is often difficult to write about science because it moves so fast. Often, a breakthrough one day will be overshadowed by a new story the next. This momentum is important and drives progress. I hope that this blog lets me calm my imagination and put in context some of the things that are in the science air.

Aspirin (pictured on the right) is a wonder drug. It stops headaches, improves outcomes from heart attacks and now can decrease the rate of colon cancer. In a story published last week, 500 people with Lynch syndrome were given aspirin and 500 more were not. Lynch syndrome predisposes one to colon cancer, and in the group taking aspirin the rates of colon cancer decreased.

Despite all the benefit, aspirin would not pass through the intensive drug approval process today. The effect of aspirin is achieved by inhibition of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase (COX) which itself leads to the synthesis of prostaglandins (PG). While inhibition of COX has many positive outcomes it also decreases a specific PG which is responsible for limiting the effect of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This side effect leads to internal bleeding and would most likely cause a discontinuation of a clinical trial.

Hippocrates used bark from the willow tree as a pain reliever around 500 B.C. The active ingredient was salicylic acid (shown right). This compound was an even worse irritant to the stomach than aspirin. Felix Hoffman added an acetyl group to salicylic acid in 1897 and aspirin was born. We are lucky that a compound like this was discovered in tree bark and also that a scientist came along early enough to push through a drug that now is taken by over 100 million people.

A question lingers, though. Are there compounds currently that are failing safety profiles that could have, one day, the positive contribution of aspirin?

A joke at every end:
What animal do you not want to play cards with?
A cheetah.