NSAIDs Induced Regulation of Alternatively Spliced Transcript Isoforms: Possible Role in Cancer and Alzheimer Disease

Background: Alternative splicing is one of the post transcriptional modifications through which multiple mRNA isoforms are produced from any gene, also known as splice variants. These are expressed in tissue and developmental stage specific manner that are important during the development. Most human genes undergo alternative splicing, thus contributing to the diversity of proteins. However, many abnormal splicing processes may result in human diseases. Non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are medications that act as analgesics, anti-pyretics and antiinflammatory by affecting Cox genes and their products. Usually NSAIDs cause gastrotoxicity however, isozyme-specific NSAIDs exhibit a comparatively reduced gastrotoxic effect. Such NSAIDs have a broader range of application particularly as chemo-preventive drugs. It is known that changes at the active site of an enzyme may illicit a diverse range of responses. Such changes might explain the underlying reason as to why patients appear to respond differently to different NSAIDs. Methods: An extensive literature search has been carried out using Pubmed and web of science databases considering the papers in last 10 years mainly on alternative splicing and NSAIDs. Conclusion: We have reviewed in detail the insight into the action of NSAIDs targeting specific isoforms of different genes. In future, the complete understanding of NSAIDs associated genes and their expression studies may be helpful in generating drugs with increased specificity.