The Immunological Processes & Smoking Diseases

Published on August 24, 2009 4:41 AM

Not all the smokers have the same disease caused by smoking, explained anti-tobacco researchers. One of the diseases caused by smoking is COPD, a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a disease that results in arduous breathing difficulty.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) it is the fourth leading killer worldwide. Nevertheless the mechanisms responsible for some smokers developing COPD and others avoiding the disease have not been well understood.

Dr. Manuel Cosio from the McGill University Health Centre, reported that an autoimmune mechanism, blended by genetic predisposition in COPD, would explain the progression of the disease in some smokers and the escape in others. COPD has a family relationship and next of relative of patients with COPD have a much higher chance of developing the disease, a characteristic of autoimmune illnesses.

Although smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD in the western world, open fire pollutant cooking and heating fuels in the home is an important risk factor for the development of COPD in women in developing nations too.

"Smoke can play an important role in autoimmune diseases such as COPD, and other diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, because it accentuates genetic predispositions to the disease," added Dr. Cosio.

This is the first study which found that COPD does not progress in the same way in all tobacco smokers. Researchers describe three steps in the possible progression to COPD in smokers.

For example COPD does not go from stage one, two and three in all people. It depends on their personal balance between immune response and immune control some people would stop at stage one, others at stage two, and some will progress to stage three, full autoimmunity and lung destruction.

Dr. Cosio concluded: "Hopefully investigators will now see the disease in a totally different way. Our hope is that our research will open the door for a different investigation on COPD, where scientists learn more about the immunological processes and how these processes could be controlled and modulated to eventually give the right treatment."