Anti-Inflammatory Pain Relievers May Fight Viruses

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Anti-Inflammatory Pain Relievers May Fight Viruses

Mon Feb 25, 5:40 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Certain pain relievers, including aspirin,

might actually be able to fight some viruses instead of just treating

virus symptoms such as fever, researchers report.

In a laboratory study, investigators in New Jersey have found that the

group of pain relievers that inhibit an enzyme known as COX-2 prevent

reproduction of a virus called human cytomegalovirus (CMV). This

squelching effect, which can be accomplished by aspirin and other drugs,

might very well apply to other viruses, according to an independent expert.

Even if the results apply only to CMV, the findings will be important if

they're confirmed by clinical studies. CMV infects most adults, without

causing illness, but it can be deadly in people with weak immune

systems, such as AIDS patients. Also, CMV infection in pregnant women is

a leading cause of birth defects, especially hearing impairments.

The effect of inhibition of COX-2 on CMV was first studied several years

ago. A laboratory study showed that when muscle cells infected with CMV

were treated with aspirin, the reproduction rate of the virus was cut in

half.

The current study confirmed this result. When Dr. E. Shenk of

Princeton University and colleagues infected skin cells with CMV, they

found that inhibiting COX-2 reduced the virus reproduction rate more

than 100-fold. The researchers used three experimental compounds in the

study that specifically inhibit COX-2 alone. They also used another drug

that is known to inhibit both COX-2 and COX-1, another type of enzyme.

Traditional drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen inhibit both enzymes,

but a newer class of drugs, known as COX-2 inhibitors, are more targeted.

But the New Jersey team went further than the other researchers--they

showed why inhibitors of COX-2 have this effect. They already knew that

the drugs block the production of a naturally occurring chemical in the

body called prostaglandin E2. This and other prostaglandins are

responsible for the pain, fever and inflammation that develop in a wide

range of disorders.

Shenk and his associates added to this knowledge by showing that

prostaglandin E2 is vital to the reproduction of CMV. They added

prostaglandin E2 to CMV-infected cells in which virus reproduction had

been blocked by an inhibitor of COX-2. Prostaglandin E2 restored virus

reproduction, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences Early Edition, released online February 26.

There is evidence that prostaglandins play a role in the reproduction of

other viruses, Dr. Mocarski, Jr. of Stanford University suggests

in a journal commentary. An example, he notes, is the herpes simplex

virus. One strain of this virus causes cold sores and another causes

genital herpes infections.

If scientists confirm that prostaglandins are involved in herpes and

other viral infections, drugs that suppress prostaglandins might be " an

auxiliary means of controlling infection, " according to Mocarski.

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition

2002;10.1073/pnas052713799.