The group of NSAIDs includes numerous active ingredients, widely used in therapy for the treatment of many ailments and diseases.
According to their chemical structure or mechanism of action, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be classified into different groups. Below, we will go into more detail.
The mechanism of action is shared by all NSAIDs and essentially consists in the obstacle of the synthesis of prostaglandins involved in inflammation (but not only, as will be seen later) through the inhibition of the enzyme cyclooxygenase or COX. it is responsible for the conversion of arachidonic acid into prostaglandins of the 2 series and thromboxane A2.
whose sodium salt was used in the therapeutic field already in the early years of the second half of the 1800s.
Today, salicylic acid is used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields only for cutaneous use as a keratolytic agent.
The "acetylsalicylic acid - still used today - instead, entered therapy in 1899. The name of" Aspirin "by which everyone knows it was given to him by the director of the pharmacology department of the Beyer industry, in Germany.
From a chemical point of view, acetylsalicylic acid can be considered as an acetic derivative of its precursor salicylic acid, obtained by acetylation of the hydroxy group contained in it. Once taken, acetylsalicylic acid is rapidly absorbed in the stomach and by the first tract of the small intestine, allowing the reaching of the plasma peak after about two hours from the assumption. However, it should be noted that the absorption of the active principle is strongly influenced by the gastric pH.
In addition to the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic action for which acetylsalicylic acid is widely used, it has proved useful - at the right dosages - also in the treatment of other diseases (such as the treatment of Kawasaki syndrome in children) and in the prevention of blood clot formation in patients at risk for cardiovascular events. Given this "antiplatelet activity," among the most clinically relevant drug interactions we find without a shadow of a doubt those that are established with oral anticoagulants. Other interactions may also occur with methotrexate, sulfonamides and oral hypoglycemic agents.
The most common side effects affect the gastrointestinal tract (eg nausea vomiting, worsening of ulcer symptoms, etc.) at which salicylates and acetylsalicylic acid can cause irritation.
