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Article: Smoking mice avoid symptoms of emphysema: edible drug might help fight lung disease in people.(Body & Brain)(Brief article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- January 17, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A compound that revs up the production of homegrown antioxidants in the body prevents emphysema from developing in mice exposed to cigarette smoke for six months, a new study finds.
The study, using the experimental drug CDDO-imidazole, or CDDO-Im, appears January 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers focused on emphysema in mice, but the results suggest that the drug could work in people by delaying or preventing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which encompasses emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
CDDO-Im jump-starts a molecule called Nrf2 that in turn switches on a host of genes that encode antioxidants in the ...