Dr. Ian Blair reports this study for the first time on June 15th at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)/8th International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Conference (IUBMB) in Boston. His research team's discovery casts a new light on the mechanism through which aspirin - and diets rich in fruits, grain and vegetables -- appear to lower the risk of some cancers. It also suggests a potential role for the widely used COX-2 inhibitors in the prevention of DNA damage.

In the same presentation, Dr. Blair reports new data that support his earlier discovery that vitamin C can increase DNA damage. His 2001 article in Science was the first to report a potential negative effect of vitamin C and thus caused a firestorm of attention, although Dr. Blair was careful to spell out that he believed that in order to be at risk for DNA damage from vitamin C an individual would have to take some unknown high quantity of the vitamin, experience oxidative stress, and have a problem with the ordinarily efficient DNA repair enzymes. The two studies are closely related, says Dr. Blair, because the COX-2 enzyme produces lipid hydroperoxides and vitamin C stimulates their breakdown. This results in the formation of a class of DNA-harming agents called genotoxins, which are known to be involved in the formation of certain human cancers.

Interest in the potential use of COX-2 inhibitors as anticancer agents was fueled in part a decade ago when an American Cancer Society study showed that regular use of aspirin led to an unexpectedly low incidence of colon cancer. But all was not rosy. In additi
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Contact: Sarah Goodwin
asbmb04@bellsouth.net
770-270-0989
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
15-Jun-2004