Smoking Can Alter Gene Function
A new study from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio, Texas, has found that cigarette smoke can alter gene expression, or the way in which genetic information is converted into the structures of a cell, and entire networks of genes. These alterations can negatively affect the immune system, increasing individuals' risk of cancer.
The researchers studied the activity of genes within the white blood cells of 1,240 people, and identified 323 genes with expressions that were associated with smoking. Lead author Jac Charlesworth, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Menzies Research Institute at the University of Tasmania in Australia, wrote that their results suggest that individual genes and entire networks of genes are affected by cigarette smoking.
Charlesworth said that their study is unlike others in that the largest previous study included 42 smokers and 43 non-smokers, whereas they studied 1,240 individuals (including 297 smokers). He added that this is the first study to discover a clear link between smoking and gene function, and that it is safe to assume that the effect of smoking on gene expression has bigger implications for risk of disease, especially cancers as a result of exposure to cigarette smoke.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study was published in the journal BMC Medical Genomics.
Source: Science Daily, Smoking Influences Gene Function, Scientists Say, July 14, 2010
