It sounded ludicrous last year where it was reported that smokers appeared to suffer less from Covid-19 that non-smokers. Now there is some scientific investigation into possible development of anti-Covid drugs or therapeutics from tobacco smoke.
Researchers identified two drugs that mimic the effect of chemicals in cigarette smoke to bind to a receptor in mammalian cells that inhibits production of ACE2 proteins, a process that appears to reduce the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the cell, according to a study done by Scientific Reports,.
According to a report published on the News Medical Life Science website, “Active smoking is associated with increased severity of disease, but at the same time, many reports have suggested lower numbers of Covid-19 cases amongst smokers than amongst non-smokers.” The report goes on to say, “It is known that cigarette smoke contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These can bind to and activate aryl hydrocarbon receptors (AHRs). A receptor is any structure of the surface or inside of a cell that is shaped to receive and bind to a particular substance. AHRs are a type of receptor inside of mammalian cells that is in turn a transcription factor — something that can induce a wide range of cellular activities through its ability to increase or decrease the expression of certain genes.
The cigarette smoke extract and these two drugs—all of which act as activators of AHR—are able to suppress the expression of ACE2 in mammalian cells, and by doing so, reduce the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to enter the cell. Based on the findings in the lab, the team is now proceeding with pre-clinical and clinical trials on the drugs as a novel anti-Covid-19 therapies.
This comes on top of the report in Tobacco Asia on August 30 of the Covid-19 vaccine from the Canadian biopharmaceutical company Medicago, part of Philip Morris, which uses Nicotiana benthamiana tobacco plants to produce a plant-based vaccine. These plant-based vaccines may be faster to make, cheaper, and safer than vaccines tested in animals, as well as creating higher levels of antigens and being more effective on the immune system.
And our continuing reports on BAT subsidiary Kentucky Bioprocessing and its progress in a Covid-19 candidate vaccine which also uses innovated plant-based technology using the tobacco leaf.
It might be hyperbole, to say “tobacco to the rescue” when it comes to the various therapeutic, vaccines etc. developed from tobacco (and now tobacco smoke) to conquer Covid-19, but sometimes with all the negative news on tobacco, we need to trumpet the good news that can be associated with the industry,