A new study reveals that chemicals in cigarette smoke and e-cigarettes interfere with the function of MAIT cells, a type of immune cell crucial for fighting respiratory infections. This alteration makes smokers and those exposed to secondhand and thirdhand smoke more susceptible to infections and worsens smoking-related lung diseases like COPD.
Monash UniversityJan 15 2025 Cigarette smoking is widespread and deadly, yet our understanding of how cigarette smoke actually causes serious respiratory illnesses is incomplete, which has severely hampered the development of effective treatments. Today Australian researchers reveal how multiple chemicals found in cigarette smoke and e-cigarettes alter the function of a key type of immune cell found in the lungs.
According to Dr Wael Awad, from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, first author on the new JEM study, "until now the mechanisms underlying the skewed immune responses in people exposed to cigarette smoke, and how they are related to smoke-associated diseases like COPD remain unclear."
MAIT cells are activated by a protein called MR1 that is found in almost every cell of the body. MR1 recognizes chemicals produced by bacteria and presents them at the surface of infected cells in order to activate MAIT cells and initiate an immune response.
IMMUNOLOGY RESPIRATORY DISEASES COPD CIGARETTE SMOKE E-CIGARETTES
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