Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Health and Climate Change

Exposure to cigarette smoke causes the common lung disease called COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Climate change has led to dramatic increases in forest and bush fires and has exposed millions to wildfire smoke so far in 2023 alone. Despite the growing risk of lung and heart disease due to smoke, how it works in the body remains poorly understood. Treatments to reduce the harmful effects of smoke are not available but would be beneficial, especially for vulnerable people such as young children and the elderly, and for indigenous populations who often live near wildfires. This proposal will study lung cells that are directly exposed to smoke, however the results will be relevant to the entire body, as many chemicals in smoke enter the blood stream and affect other organs. We will collect smoke from burning cigarettes and from forest material and examine its exposure on live cells and a mouse disease model. We think smoke causes cell stress and reduces salt and fluid secretion as in cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that has mucus obstruction, inflammation and infection resembling COPD. We will study secretion and cell stress in airway cells using electrical, biochemical, and microscopy methods. To relate cell culture results to disease we will expose mice to smoke and study markers of inflammation and genetic changes that are associated with COPD. Based on previous work and the new information gained from this project, we will test several classes of molecules that could minimize the harmful effects of smoke exposure.