Carbon black nanoparticles are more dangerous than previously thought
Research shows that the black substance from cigarette smoke causes DNA damage, lung inflammation and emphysema.
Smoking for many years damages the lungs and leads to a disease called emphysema that makes it difficult to breathe and is often deadly. There are thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke and many of them have been linked to the development of lung cancer, although it has been difficult to pinpoint those that are responsible for smoking-related emphysema. Moreover, cigarette smoke also contains large numbers of small particles and relatively little is known about the role played by these particles in smoking-related disease.
One of the hallmarks of long-term smoking is a blackening of the lung tissue that persists even if someone stops smoking. Previously, little was known about the composition of the substance that causes this blackening, or its significance in the development of emphysema. Now, by studying lung tissue taken from smokers with emphysema, Ran You and colleagues have shown that this black substance is made of nano-sized particles of a material called carbon black (which is also known as elemental carbon). These nanoparticles are produced by the incomplete combustion of the cigarettes. You and colleagues also confirmed that nanoparticles of carbon black can cause emphysema in mice.
Closer examination of the lung damage caused by the nanoparticles revealed that they trigger breakages in DNA, which leads to inflammation of the lung. And because the nanoparticles cannot be cleared, they are released into the lung when cells die, which perpetuates lung inflammation and damage.
You and colleagues then went on to show that nanoparticles of carbon black can be modified in a way that allows them to be cleared from the lungs. Such modifications could potentially protect people who are exposed to carbon black nanoparticles in the environment or in workplaces where carbon black is used, such as factories that produce automobile tires and other rubber products.
To find out more
Read the eLife research paper on which this eLife digest is based: “Nanoparticulate carbon black in cigarette smoke induces DNA cleavage and Th17-mediated emphysema” (October 5, 2015)
Read a commentary on this research paper: “Lung disease: The soot of all evil”
