Safe to smoke?

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 19 2010

Dr. Ananya Mandal, MD

Smokers all over the world, take this good news with a tablespoon of salt!

Some Australian scientists have found that there is a new agent that can protect the lungs of mice from the harmful effects of cigarette smoke.

At the molecular & cellular level

According to the lead researcher, Ross Vlahos lungs in response to cigarette smoke produces a substance called the granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). This GM-CSF triggers inflammatory leukocytes to become active in the lungs, leading to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other negative health effects such as "oxidative stress, emphysema, small airway fibrosis, mucus hypersecretion and progressive airflow limitation". In short smokers cough and every lung damage short of cancer.

The experiment

Vlahos and his colleagues at the Melbourne University used a blocking agent, known as "anti GM-CSF". They gave this anti-GM-CSF to some mice before exposing them and other non-medicated control mice to "the equivalent of nine cigarettes of smoke each day for four days".

At the end of the study the mice were killed and their lungs studied. The results showed that mice treated with "anti GM-CSF" had significantly less lung inflammation, as compared to the untreated mice, said Vlahos.

Implications and a Warning

"This indicates that GM-CSF is a key mediator in smoke-induced lung inflammation and its neutralization may have therapeutic implications (for humans) in diseases such as COPD." He said.

However the risk of cancer from cigarette smoke remains.

Vlahos says, "Our treatment deals with cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation involved in COPD, not cancer and other smoking-related ailments. Quitting remains the best and the only cure for smoking-related lung disease."