Article Start
Jack Elias and colleagues, at Yale University School of Medicine, have performed new studies in mice that provide mechanistic insight into why viral infections have more severe consequences in individuals exposed to cigarette smoke than in those not exposed to cigarette smoke (e.g., influenza-infected smokers have increased mortality when compared with influenza-infected nonsmokers).

In the study, a combination of cigarette smoke and compounds that mimic viral components were found to cause more severe airway damage in a mouse model of the lung disease chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than the compounds that mimic viral components alone. Further, cigarette smoke enhanced the effects of influenza in mice. The effects of the combination of cigarette smoke and the compounds that mimic viral components were associated with an increased immune response in the lung and detailed analysis identified the molecular pathways involved. In an accompanying commentary, Rubin Tuder and Jeong Yun, at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, explain the importance of defining the signaling pathways involved in the cigarette smoke-enhanced effects of viral infection for human disease.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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TITLE: Cigarette smoke selectively enhances viral PAMP - and virus-induced pulmonary innate immune and remodeling responses in mice

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Jack A. Elias
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=32709

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY

TITLE: It takes two to tango: cigarette smoke partners with viruses to promote emphysema

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Rubin M. Tuder
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=36536

Source: Karen Honey
Journal of Clinical Investigation Article End