- Person
- John Vane
- Lived
- 1927–2004
- Field
- Pharmacology
- From
- British
The story
Aspirin went on sale in 1899 and became one of the most used medicines in history, yet for seven decades no one knew how it relieved pain, fever and inflammation. The answer came from John Vane, a British pharmacologist whose father was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. Vane had started as a chemist in Birmingham, discovered pharmacology almost by accident, and by the 1960s was a professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in London.
Vane’s laboratory had developed a way of watching hormones appear and disappear almost in real time, by dripping blood or fluid from an organ over a cascade of living tissue strips, each sensitive to a different substance. In the mid-1960s his group turned this technique on prostaglandins, newly discovered hormone-like substances involved in pain, fever and inflammation. Vane suspected that aspirin worked by stopping the body from making them. In 1971 he showed that aspirin and the related drug indomethacin block the enzyme that produces prostaglandins, the enzyme now called cyclooxygenase.
The finding explained a whole family of medicines, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including ibuprofen and naproxen, and it explained their side effects, such as stomach irritation, as well as their benefits. It also explained why aspirin thins the blood: platelets use the same enzyme to make a substance that makes them clump together. That understanding became the scientific basis for taking low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at high risk. Later, Vane’s work helped trigger the development of COX-2 inhibitors, designed to relieve inflammation with less harm to the stomach.
Vane went on to lead research at the Wellcome Foundation, where his group discovered prostacyclin, a blood-vessel hormone that prevents clots, and he founded the William Harvey Research Institute in London. He shared the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson for their discoveries about prostaglandins.
Why it matters
Vane’s discovery explains how aspirin and ibuprofen-type painkillers work and underpins the daily low-dose aspirin that helps protect millions of people from heart attacks and strokes.
About John Vane
British pharmacologist who discovered how aspirin works, found prostacyclin and helped launch ACE inhibitors, among the world’s most used heart and blood-pressure medicines.
More about John Vane
Sources
- Sir John Vane (obituary by Caroline Richmond) BMJ
- John R. Vane, Biographical NobelPrize.org
- John Vane Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.