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| Smoking Emphysema |
Question:
Are there any breakthroughs on emphysema caused by smoking?
Answer:
With the help of some heavy-smoking mice,
researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have
discovered that lungs lacking a certain enzyme are apparently immune to
emphysema. The discovery, described in the Sept. 26, 1997, issue of
Science, throws serious doubt on conventional theories of the disease,
and researchers are already using the finding to search for potential new
drugs.
Steven D. Shapiro, M.D., associate professor of medicine and of cell
biology and physiology at the School of Medicine, and colleagues found
that mice genetically engineered to lack an enzyme called macrophage
elastase showed no signs of emphysema even after inhaling the smoke of
two unfiltered cigarettes a day, six days a week for six months. Such
heavy smoking invariably causes emphysema-like symptoms in normal mice.
This enzyme clearly plays a primary role in the
development of the disease in mice and probably in humans.
Macrophage elastase is a member of a family of enzymes that is currently
attracting intense scientific interest. Many researchers believe that
members of this family, called metalloproteinases, play a major role in a
host of disorders including tooth decay, atherosclerosis, arthritis ?
and, now, emphysema.
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