October 2019 Vol. 7 No.10

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Review

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs– What do we (not) know about them

Radostina Alexandrova^1*, Orlin Alexandrov², Pencho Beykov^1,3, Gunay Yetik-Anacak⁴, Jelena Krasilnikova⁵, Gabriela Marinescu⁶, Daniela-Cristina Culita⁶, Crtomir Podlipnik⁷ and Chukwuemeka Obinna Ekeh^1,8

¹Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
²Health Service, Gorna Malina, Bulgaria
³Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
⁴Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Izmir, Turkey
⁵Rigas Stradin University, Riga, Latvia
⁶Institute of Physical Chemistry “Ilie Murgulescu”, Bucharest, Romania
⁷Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Lubljana, Lubljana, Slovenia
⁸Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria

*Corresponding Author’s E-mail: rialexandrova@hotmail.com

Accepted October 31, 2019

Abstract

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reversibly inhibit the functioning of cyclooxygenase (COX) – the rate-limiting enzyme in prostaglandin synthesis, and express anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic effects. NSAIDs are among the most widely used medications in the world and are prescribed for the treatment of various forms of chronic and acute pain, arthritic conditions, rheumatism, fever/pyrexia, gout, etc. Some of them (aspirin) are used also for prevention of secondary cardiovascular disease due to their ability to suppress platelet aggregation. The mini-review summarizes data about mechanism(s) of action, clinical application and side effects/toxicity of these drugs as well as their potential antitumor activity.

Keywords: Anticancer, Cyclooxygenase, Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Prostanoids, Side effets, Toxicity