Study Of Pharmacovigilance Related Drug Aspirin

B. Pharmacy

Antiplatelet therapy has been documented to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease after acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass graft, and in chronic atrial fibrillation patients, amongst other risk factors. Conventional management of thrombosis-based disorders includes the use of heparin, oral anticoagulants, and the preferred antiplatelet agent aspirin. Interestingly, aspirin was not intended to be used as an antiplatelet agent; rather, after being repurposed, it has become one of the most widely prescribed antithrombotic drugs. To this end, there have been several milestones in the development of antiplatelet agents in the last few decades, such as adenosine diphosphate receptor inhibitors, phosphodiesterase inhibitors, and GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors. However, given some of the limitations of these therapies, aspirin continues to play a major role in the management of thrombotic and cardiovascular disorders and is expected to do so for years to come. Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is the best-known salicylate and belongs to the non steroid anti-inflammatory drug class. Despite wide use being made since more than 100 years, knowledge about mechanism of action and therapeutic issues continually evolves. The main mechanism of action is prostaglandin synthesis inhibition. This is achieved through inhibition of prostaglandin endoperoxide synthase (PGHS) or cyclooxygenase (COX) synthesis. Most of the therapeutic uses of aspirin are explained by this mechanism. Nevertheless aspirin uses change as time goes by: if the main one during the first fifty years was an analgesic, anti-pyretic and anti-inflammatory one, the last fifty years saw aspirin being used mainly as an anti-thrombotic agent, in primary and secondary thrombo-embolic prevention. Better knowledge of mechanism of action points today at, on one hand, more selective and therefore better tolerated molecules, and, on the other hand, at new therapeutic applications, such as anti-cancer and neurodegenerative diseases prevention.

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