Approaches to identify less harmful tobacco and tobacco products
AssigneesVector Tobacco, Inc., New York Medical College
InventorsAnthony P. Albino, Ellen D. Jorgensen, Frank Traganos, Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz, Wendy Jin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Aspects of the invention concern methods for detecting, identifying and evaluating tobacco and tobacco products to determine the potential that these compositions have to contribute to a tobacco-related disease. It is based, at least in part; on the discovery that exposure of pulmonary cells to smoke or smoke condensate obtained from tobacco or tobacco products induces double stranded breaks in cellular DNA, which were efficiently detected using assays that measure the presence, absence, or amount of phosphorylation of the histone, H2AX.
Claims19
A method of analyzing whole smoke from a cigarette for the ability to induce a double-strand DNA break in a human cell comprising:
- contacting a human cell with whole smoke obtained from a cigarette;
- and
- performing an assay that detects a double strand DNA break in said human cell.
A method of making a cigarette comprising:
- contacting a first population of human cells with whole smoke obtained from a first tobacco;
- performing an assay that detects double strand DNA breaks in said first population of human cells;
- determining whether the whole smoke obtained from said first tobacco produces fewer double strand DNA breaks in said first population of human cells than the amount of double strand DNA breaks produced in a second population of human cells that were contacted with whole smoke from a second tobacco;
- and
- incorporating said first tobacco into a cigarette when said whole smoke from said first tobacco produces fewer double strand DNA breaks in said first population of human cells than the amount of double strand DNA breaks produced in a second population of human cells that were contacted with whole smoke from a second tobacco.
A method of making a cigarette comprising:
- contacting a first population of human cells with whole smoke obtained from a first tobacco;
- performing an assay that detects the amount of apoptosis in said first population of human cells;
- determining whether the whole smoke obtained from said first tobacco produces more apoptosis in said first population of human cells compared to the amount of apoptosis produced in a second population of human cells, which were contacted with whole smoke from a second tobacco;
- and
- incorporating said first tobacco into a cigarette when said whole smoke obtained from said first tobacco produces more apoptosis in said first population of human cells compared to the amount of apoptosis produced in said second population of human cells, which were contacted with whole smoke from the second tobacco.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.