EXTRA doses of a molecule that helps to protect lung cells from the damage caused by smoking might one day reduce some of the dangers associated with the habit.
Avrum Spira at Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues identified 28 microRNAs – molecules that control the expression of networks of related genes – that were less prevalent in the airways of smokers than non-smokers (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0806383106).
One microRNA, called mir-218, seems to control a group of genes that help to protect lung and airway cells from smoke damage. So Spira suggests that giving…
