By Debbie Bunch
February 24, 2025
Menthol Cigarettes Up Mortality Risks
Public health groups have been trying to ban menthol from cigarettes for decades, claiming the additive not only encourages people to start smoking but hinders them from quitting. New research from the American Cancer Society suggests menthol cigarettes also raise the mortality risk for some current and former smokers alike.
The study involved participants in the Cancer Prevention Study II, which enrolled participants in the early 1980s and then followed them for six years to determine mortality outcomes. The researchers found:
- Among 73,486 participants reporting menthol brands and 281,680 reporting non-menthol brands, there were 4,071 and 20,738 deaths, respectively.
- Among people who quit smoking, a history of menthol vs. non-menthol smoking was associated with an increased mortality risk of 12% from all causes, 16% from all cardiovascular diseases, 13% from ischemic or coronary artery disease, and 43% from other heart diseases.
- Among current smokers, there was an elevated risk among menthol smokers for those smoking 40 or more cigarettes per day, along with an 88% elevated mortality risk for some heart diseases in Black menthol smokers.
“Menthol in cigarettes is an established public health threat due to its effect on increasing smoking uptake and reducing smoking cessation,” said lead study author Dr. Priti Bandi. “With these results additionally showing unique mortality effects, it’s time for menthol cigarettes to be regulated to help save lives.”
Tobacco Control published the study. Read Press Release Read Abstract
Some Diabetes Medications May Lead to Fewer COPD Exacerbations
Could diabetes medications like Ozempic and Wegovy lower the risk of COPD exacerbations in patients with both COPD and type 2 diabetes (T2D)?
According to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the VA Boston Healthcare System, who compared patients taking GLP-1 and SGLT-2i medications with those on DPP-4i medications, the answer is yes.
The study was conducted among 393,847 patients with T2D and active COPD drawn from three U.S. insurance claims databases. The median follow-up was 145 days, and during that time, the risk of moderate or severe COPD exacerbation was lower among those treated with both SGLT-2is vs. DPP-4is (9.26 vs. 11.4 per 100 person-years) and GLP-1RAs vs. DPP-4is (9.89 vs. 11.49 per 100 person-years).
A head-to-head comparison of the SGLT-2i and GLP-IRA medications did not show significant differences in efficacy.
Both GLP-1 and SGLT-2i medications are believed to have anti-inflammatory and lung-protective effects.
“These findings suggest that SGLT-2is and GLP-1RAs may be preferable to DPP-4is when deciding among glucose-lowering medications for patients with T2D and active COPD,” wrote the authors. They call for additional studies to corroborate their results.
JAMA Internal Medicine published the study. Read Full Paper
Potential New Asthma Treatments Target Resident Memory T Cells
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) believe two new therapeutic cocktails that inhibit key molecules that allow tissue-resident memory T cells to stay active and at high numbers may one day help treat patients with allergic asthma.
So far, the therapeutic cocktails specifically target the molecules ICOSL, OX40L, and CD30L, which have successfully dampened the immune response to allergens in mice models. “If we can target these molecules in human patients, they might be able to develop long-lasting tolerance to allergens,” said Gurupreet Sethi, PhD, who led the study with support from LJI’s Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology.
Development of the treatments was spurred by previous work showing that simultaneously blocking OX40L and CD30L could reduce asthma attacks in mice. But despite these encouraging findings, the team also discovered a significant amount of heterogeneity in T cells from human asthmatic lungs and they didn’t all express receptors for OX40L and CD30L in the same manner.
A mouse model with the same variety of T cells seen in human lungs was then created to assess the different subtypes of memory T cells. Results showed that a subset of those cells, called ICOSL, also plays a role in T cells during asthma exacerbations. When the researchers blocked ICOSL along with either OX40L or CD30L, they found that only 10-20% of tissue-resident memory T cells persisted. The result was 50% when only OX40L and CD30L were used.
The larger reduction in T cells protected mice from asthma exacerbations for weeks after treatment, even when repeatedly challenged with an asthma trigger.
The researchers hope to advance their study into humans soon. They believe the treatments could also help other people with inflammatory-related conditions, such as atopic dermatitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and multiple sclerosis.
The study was published by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Read Press Release Read Abstract
