The newly developed gas-filled NOSH-aspirin, a cancer treating drug can be manufactured in Iran, Associate Medical Professor and Chemistry Coordinator at the City College of New York Khosrow Kashfi said.
“The synthesis is not complicated and I am sure that it can be manufactured in Iran. Of course, it will first have to pass the regulatory requirements,” he explained.
Not long ago, Kashfi and his team developed gas-filled NOSH-aspirin drug, that can dramatically boost usual aspirin’s cancer-fighting ability.
Loading aspirin with gas dramatically boosts its cancer-fighting ability and might even blunt the harmful side effects of taking aspirin every day. Aspirin has been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of cancer, however it can also cause ulcers and bleeding in the gut, which doesn’t necessarily make it a good option for healthy people.
The gut lining protects itself from damage by producing nitric oxide and hydrogen sulphide. Professor Kashfi at The City College of New York developed NOSH-aspirin, which produces both gases as it breaks down.
Aspirin is known to damage cancer cells, which is thought to be behind its preventative effect. To test the new drug, Kashfi’s team added it to cells from 11 types of human tumour, including colon, pancreas, breast, lung and prostate cancer.
Further work by Kashfi showed that the new compound appears not to be harmful to animals. In mice with human colon cancer, daily doses for 18 days reduced tumour size by 85 per cent with no gut damage.
Speaking about the future prognosises, Kashfi said the researches would probably be able to carry out clinical trials in two-five years, depending on the research progress.
“We have evaluated the effects of NOSHASA on the growth properties of eleven different cancer cell lines of six different histological subtypes as well as in mice bearing human colon cancer xenografts,” Kashfi noted.
“We found that NOSH-aspirin was very potent and effective in inhibiting cell growth in culture and in the mice. We also showed that NOSH-aspirin has great anti-inflammatory properties.”
Professor Kashfi added that the doctors are currently looking at the molecular targets of NOSH-aspirin and its effects in other animal models of cancer, and soon the findings would be published.
“The next step would be toxicology studies and then hopefully clinical trials. I think we are two to five years away from that,” he added. “My ultimate hope is that we will have a NOSH compound in the clinic”.
When asked about how NOSH-aspirin and another Iran-manufactured cancer-treating drug “Paciltaxel” compare, Kashfi said the two have completely different mechanisms of action.
“Paciltaxel or taxol as it was originally called, is a mitotic inhibitor used in cancer chemotherapy,” he said. “In our animal studies, NOSH-aspirin has been very effective, we have to wait and see how this will compare to conventional drugs if it reaches the clinic”.
Iran Corner 
Posted on March 10, 2012
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