Abstract
Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) exert their beneficial anti-inflammatory actions, as well as their undesirable gastro-intestinal effects, through inhibition of the enzyme prostaglandin H synthase1, also referred to as cyclooxygenase (COX). The discovery of an inducible COX enzyme (COX-2), distinct from the constitutively expressed enzyme (COX-1)2,3, has led to the suggestion that a new generation of safer NSAIDs may be developed in the near future. Classical NSAIDs, such as aspirin, flurbiprofen and naproxen, inhibit both COX-1 and COX-2 and are therefore nonselective inhibitors. Simply stated, the COX-2 hypothesis suggests that inhibitors selective for COX-2 over COX-1 should be relatively safer therapeutic agents than currently available NSAIDs. In vivo experiments with selective COX-2 inhibitors support the suggestion that such compounds will have an anti-inflammatory effect without severe gastrointestinal toxicity4.
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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Browner, M.F. (1996). X-ray crystal structure of human cyclooxygenase-2. In: Bazan, N., Botting, J., Vane, J. (eds) New Targets in Inflammation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5386-7_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5386-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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