In the recent tobacco study, the Castagnolis discovered that TMN, found in tobacco smoke as well as leaves, did in fact interfere with MAO and protected the rodents against the toxic effects of the synthetic-heroin contaminant. Although this discovery opens up the possibility of new avenues of research, "No one should start smoking based on these results," Kay Castagnoli said, "and people should continue to stop smoking. There's no evidence that the benefits of smoking will ever outweigh the risks."
"The finding that smoking decreases the risk for Parkinson's disease raises the question of identifying the actual neuroprotective agent among the hundreds of compounds present in cigarette smoke," said Donato Di Monte, director of Basic Research at the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, Calif. The discovery in the Castagnolis' lab, he said, "provides a critical clue for the development of drugs that may directly reproduce the neuroprotective action of smoking without exposing people to its other harmful health effects."
The results of the Castagnolis' research, which has included a second study of mice that confirmed their initial findings, is an important step in the study of Parkinson's disease, he said. "This compound may be the one involved in neuroprotection, but there may be others that, by acting on the enzyme, may have neuroprotective effects." Also, Kay Castagnoli said, it could be possible, in pharmaceutical industries, that this basic structure could be used as a template for th
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Contact: Kay Castagnoli
kcastagn@vt.edu
540-231-8200
Virginia Tech
18-May-2000