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Warning against smoke to help people no to dash their hopes.
No doubt that tobacco smoke is noxious. The World Health Organization states it is the second major cause of death in the world. It is responsible for the death of one in ten adults worldwide (about 5 million deaths each year), and scientific evidence confirms the relationship between its exposure (either active or passive) and cancer, tuberculosis and cardiovascular disease. A good reason that prompted a group of EVGN scientists to keep on investigating the dangerous effects of tobacco smoke with respect to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Georg Wick and 10 scientists of his group at the Biocenter, Division of Experimental Pathophysiology and Immunology at Innsbruck Medical University (Austria) - have been studying the link between cigarette smoke and CVD for more than 5 years, taking the "smoke issue" on their shoulders. "We know that smoking is the most important atherosclerosis risk factor in our society" underlines EVGN scientist Professor Wick. "Estimates indicate that smokers lose up to 7.2 years of life compared to non smokers. That's why we think it is our social duty to move along two parallel directions: we work to produce scientific evidence that highlights the danger of cigarette smoke and its specific targets in the body, and make efforts to disseminate this knowledge".
Wick's long standing experience in the field of atherosclerosis stemmed from his early interest in immunology. First, as a student and subsequently as an assistant at Vienna University, Austria, and at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he trained himself in immunopathology, immunoendocrinology and in immunology of atherosclerosis. His expertise made him eligible to chair the Institute of Pathophysiology, Innsbruck Medical University. For 3 years (2003-2005) he was (among other tasks) also the President of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), whose mission is to strengthen science and the humanities in Austria through the promotion of basic research. Of course, he is also EVGN active member.
"I strongly believe in scientific cooperation as a way to promote health and welfare in the society" states Wick, who has ongoing collaborations with several other EVGN groups "and EVGN is the perfect vehicle to achieve optimal results on health issues of common interest". More than 500 scientific papers in top-ranking journals, book chapters, and several affiliations to scientific societies make Georg Wick an authority in the field. But he is not only scientifically busy: he has much to do also on the family side being father of five.
In search of the needle in the haystack of cigarette smoke
Smoking is a bad but contagious habit. Since the age the first tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum) spread into the Old World from the Americas, someday in the XVI Century, this plant found widespread appreciation within the European elite, that started its own extensive farming and usage. Beloved or loathed that it might be, tobacco keeps on rising fierce disputations on its properties and effects among (few) supporters, and a huge majority that recognizes its addictive properties and dangerous health outcomes.
Cigarette smoke is a deadly mixture of more than 4800 different toxic compounds, many of whom are bioactive and even cancerous. The ethereal twists that emanate from the "blonde" contain substances that target different organs or systems, playing havoc in the long run. "With our expert on the effects of cigarette smoke, my collaborator David Bernhard, in particular, we devoted a lot of work to spot the most toxic chemicals contained in cigarettes, their dangerous effects, and their cellular and molecular targets" points out Wick. "In addition, to debunk the false rumours on the harmlessness of passive smoke, we have carried out a study to compare the differences among smokers, non smokers and passive smokers". Beyond confirming the well-known role of oxygen radicals, Wick's experiments revealed that a specific cigarette metal markedly damages the endothelial cells that line the blood vessel walls also in moderate and passive smokers.
"Cigarette smoke contains aluminium, chromium, mercury, nickel, zinc and many other metals - says the scientist - but one metal in particular, cadmium, exerts dramatic effects. As we found out, it completely deregulates transcription [the process that converts the information from DNA into an intermediate molecule called RNA, which then serves to produce the proteins], stresses the cells and modifies the structure of the vascular endothelium". To standardize the cellular and histological effects of cigarette smoke, his group devised a "physiological" in vitro system that mimics the effects of tobacco combustion. The device proved a valuable tool and was then widely adopted internationally by the scientific community.
Wick carried out another study involving a group of university students, that was indicative of a negative trend among the youngsters: the volunteers were medical students, one third of them admitted being active smokers, and 71 % of the non-smokers reported regular exposure to passive smoke. "As little as three cigarettes per day turned out to be sufficient to alter the regulation pattern of 21 genes" Wick found. In addition, even more dramatically, he discovered that cigarette smoke affects also the structure of a cellular protein called vimentin, whose task is to maintain the cellular shape. "Smoking exerts a domino effect: by altering one cellular parameter it triggers a chain reaction that involves many other components".
Stressed body? Dangerous reactions!
Georg Wick's work on cigarette smoke provided an invaluable contribution also to the knowledge that atherosclerosis begins in the first decades of life, as previous sparse studies suggested, and his research is somehow re-writing the aetiology of this disease with respect to the risk factors. Wick shed light for the first time on the correlation between smoking and a class of proteins that are overly produced in response to excessive heat or other types of harm [called Heat Shock Proteins, HSP].
Under normal conditions, HSPs are like traffic supervisors and make sure that the cellular proteins are the right shape and in the right place when needed. Unfortunately, due to their strong similarity with bacterial HSP, sometimes the immune system makes a mistake and sends its antibodies against them, especially when their concentration increases in response to stressful events or bacterial infections. "HSPs unwittingly stimulate the immune responses against the self" observes Wick, who succeeded in localize specific HSPs on the surface of stressed endothelial cells (but not on normal cells) using sensitive high-resolution microscopy methods. "Based on these observations, we proposed a new pathogenetic concept for atherosclerosis" explains the EVGN scientist "that takes into account also the role of smoke as a trigger for HSP production and, as a consequence, for the early onset of atherosclerosis".
Wick and his group took part in another long-term research (the Bruneck Study), proving that one HSP - called HSP60 - promotes inflammatory processes associated with early damages to blood vessels. The clinical relevance of this investigation is considerable. The Bruneck Study was a five-years follow up investigation involving almost 1000 individuals who were monitored since 1990 as far as the development of carotid plaques following increased levels of HSP60. "I owe much of these results to the wonderful group of scientists I have with me" declares Wick. "One for all Blair Henderson, excellent expert in the microarray technique, who has contributed to many aspects of our studies. Now we can write a new equation for atherosclerosis risk" adds Wick "where sustained elevation of HSP60 in the blood - also triggered by smoke - can be taken as a risk factor of early atherogenesis".
No doubt that smoking should be considered a priority by the sanitary systems. "There is an urgent need for preventive measures and preventive programmes in childhood" states Wick "to delay atherogenesis and lower the risk of its clinical consequences over years".
His scientific enthusiasm and competence have been transferred also at the familial level: "Being a supporter of a smoke-free world, a matter of great satisfaction comes from the fact that neither my wife nor my sons smoke" he admits proudly