People with a family history of Parkinson’s disease should stay away from second-hand smoke, as it could worsen the progression of the disease, a recent study by researchers at National Sun Yat-sen University found.
The study was conducted by researcher Wang Chia-chen (王家蓁), director of the school’s Aerosol Science Research Center, and Fan Hsiu-fang (范秀芳), who teaches at the school’s Institute of Medical Science and Technology, and was published on March 14 by the international journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
The study showed that the ultrafine suspended particles (PM1) produced by cigarettes — which make up 80 percent of a cigarette’s aerosol particles — might aggravate the course of Parkinson’s disease. It found that the protein alpha-synuclein, which accumulates in people with Parkinson’s, aggravates oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death when exposed to cigarette aerosol extract.
Photo: CNA
“After aerosol particles of different sizes enter the human body through breathing, they settle into different parts of the respiratory system based on their particle size and other physical and chemical properties,” Wang said.
“The smaller the particles, the greater the chance of entering deeper into the lungs and depositing in the lower respiratory tract or alveolar area,” she said.
Since the particles in cigarettes are mostly ultrafine PM1 particles, they are very likely to settle deep in the lungs, Wang said.
Some PM1 might even penetrate the alveoli and enter the blood circulation system and affect other organs, or enter the central nervous system through the nasal-brain passage and affect the operation of brain nerve cells, she said.
“They can even cause neurodegenerative diseases or aggravate their progression, as we’ve seen here, and general medical masks cannot effectively filter particles below PM2.5,” she said.
For the study, the team used the neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y — a human-derived cell line used in scientific research — as a model for observing the effects of PM1 on Parkinson’s disease.
“We observed that alpha-synuclein in the SH-SY5Y cells combine with cigarette aerosol components to intensify various cellular activities,” Fan said.
“That includes intracellular toxicity, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and autophagy dysregulation, ultimately leading to Parkinson’s disease cells,” he added..
Those in high-risk groups including patients with Parkinson’s disease, those with a family history of early-onset Parkinson’s disease and those with abnormal late-night schedules should avoid smoking or being exposed to second-hand smoke to reduce the risk of disease, she said.
In addition, eating more antioxidants and exercising more could increase the antioxidant capacity in cells and slow the damage that might be caused by oxidative stress, she said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to