Criminal.
scientists have perhaps understood how the asbestos fibers (indicated by arrows and represented trapped by a cellular immune system) trigger lung scarring and cancer.
Jürg Tschopp / University of Lausanne
researchers may have cracked the mystery of asbestos causes damage life and lung cancer risk. A new study shows that the material triggers the key immune system proteins that trigger the chronic inflammation. Therefore, a drug commonly used against arthritis may ward off lung problems induced by exposure.
Over the decades, the asbestos fibers inhaled into the lungs can cause cancer and scarring that interferes with breathing. Although these risks are known for over 100 years, researchers have been unable to discover how fibers that are found in building materials and other products, trigger damage. Gout, a disease seemingly unrelated caused by the buildup of uric acid, may have provided a vital clue. There are two years, a team led by Jürg Tschopp biologist from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland showed that uric acid causes gout by inflammasomes overactivating, immune proteins that stimulate inflammation to help remove germs . Asbestos could have a similar effect on the body?
Tschopp and colleagues exposed to asbestos immune cells that lurk in the human lung and mouse. They found that the material has stimulated inflammasome called NALP3 to release interleukin-1β (IL-1β), a chemical that induces inflammation. But the real proof came from mice that were bred to lack NALP3. When these mice were exposed to asbestos for 9 days they produced lower levels of IL-1β and less inflammation of the lung that due mice with NALP3, confirming that the Inflammasome is essential for trigger at least some of the negative effects of the fiber, the researchers report online today in science . Tschopp speculates that because the asbestos fibers become lodged in the body, prolonged exposure causes chronic inflammation which over time can cause lung damage and cancer. The details have yet to be developed, but the researchers note that IL-1β has been linked to other cancers.
The results suggest that the drug against rheumatoid arthritis anakinra which blocks IL-1ß and is being studied as a treatment for gout, could be used to prevent damage to asbestos triggered Tschopp said. In addition, tests for high levels of IL-1β could allow doctors to identify people who are at risk of developing lung exposure to asbestos problems, says Joseph Testa, a molecular geneticist at Fox Chase cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
But David Kamp, a specialist in lung diseases at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, warns that it is too early to say that we have discovered how the fibers cause Cancer. Research has not shown that this process has caused cancer in mice, scientists must demonstrate the connection before looking ahead to treatments, he said.
Related Sites
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