Peer-Reviewed Publications

      Biological impact of cigarette smoke compared to an aerosol produced from a prototypic modified risk tobacco product on normal human bronchial epithelial cells

      Kogel, U.; Gonzalez Suarez, I.; Xiang, Y.; Dossin, E.; Guy, P. A.; Mathis, C.; Marescotti, D.; Goedertier, D.; Martin, F.; Peitsch, M. C.; Hoeng, J.

      Published
      Aug 13, 2015
      DOI
      10.1016/j.tiv.2015.08.004
      PMID
      26277032
      Link to publication
      Topic
      Summary

      Cigarette smoking causes serious and fatal diseases. The best way for smokers to avoid health risks is to quit smoking. Using modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs) may be an alternative to reduce the harm caused for those who are unwilling to quit smoking, but little is known about the toxic effects of MRTPs, nor were the molecular mechanisms of toxicity investigated in detail. The toxicity of an MRTP and the potential molecular mechanisms involved were investigated in high-throughput screening tests and whole genome transcriptomics analyses using human bronchial epithelial cells. The prototypic (p)MRTP that was tested had less impact than reference cigarette 3R4F on the cellular oxidative stress response and cell death pathways. Higher pMRTP aerosol extract concentrations had impacts on pathways associated with the detoxification of xenobiotics and the reduction of oxidative damage. A pMRTP aerosol concentrations up to 18 times higher than the 3R4F caused similar perturbation effects in biological networks and led to the perturbation of networks related to cell stress, and proliferation biology. These results may further facilitate the development of a systems toxicological-based impact assessment for use in future risk assessments in line with the 21st century toxicology paradigm, as shown here for an MRTP.

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      Reduced Risk Products ("RRPs”) is the term we use to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continuing smoking. PMI has a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. All of our RRPs are smoke-free products that deliver nicotine with far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents than found in cigarette smoke.