I don't have anyone in my family who suffers from this disease but I have volunteered for the Alzheimer's walk and that was an experience in itself. My best friend's grandmother had Alzheimer's and those were very difficult times for her as well. I was surprised to read that an aspirin tablet could potentially contain an ingredient for improving the disease and even others.
The key ingredient in aspirin, salicylic acid, has been in the eyes of researchers from Boyce Thompson Institute and John Hopkins University for its ability to regulate the immune system of plants. Through their curiosity with the many benefits salicylic acid can offer for plants, they decided to check out humans. They came upon an enzyme responsible for cell death in diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's. The enzyme, Glyceraldehyde 3-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH), is a part of glucose metabolism and it enters the nucleus of neuron cells when it undergoes oxidative stress causing cell death. When neuron cells die, the disease worsens. Salicylic acid is able to bind to GAPDH and inhibit the enzyme from entering the nuclei which in-turn stops cell death. Even better, the researchers were able to find a plant based (Chinese licorice) and lab synthesized derivative of salicylic acid that is more potent than the one found in aspirin.
Further research was done and apparently salicylic acid can also bind to High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) which is involved in inflammation. Therefore, they are trying to see if salicylic acid can also help with diseases like "arthritis, lupus, sepsis, atherosclerosis and certain cancers".
It seems like salicylic acid has a promising future for the treatment of diseases that affect a lot of us and our family members. I still feel like more research needs to be done to ensure there are no weird or dangerous side effects from salicylic acid based treatments. Article
Walk to end Alzheimer's September 2013
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