UF Shands Cancer Center researcher awarded grant to study nicotine’s effects on cancer cells

The Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute has awarded University of Florida Shands Cancer Center researcher Xingming Deng, M.D., Ph.D., a two-year grant to study nicotine’s effects on lung cancer cells.

Deng, an assistant professor in UF’s College of Medicine, will receive $217,000 to investigate whether nicotine, a major component of cigarette smoke, helps lung cancer cells survive and grow resistant to chemotherapy.

Preliminary studies at UF strongly suggest that nicotine activates a protein in cancer cells that disrupts the process of programmed cell death, which normally orders cells in the body to self-destruct at the end of their natural lifespan. High levels of the protein, known as Bc12, are found in the blood of smokers who have lung cancer.

UF scientists will study lung cancer cells in culture in the laboratory, where they will expose them to nicotine and track production of Bc12. They will then assess how the cells react when exposed to standard chemotherapy agents.

Deng also plans to explore the possibility that nicotine-induced activation of Bc12 can be blocked to increase chemotherapy’s effectiveness.

The research foundation was established in 1997 as a result of a $300 million settlement between airline flight attendants and the tobacco industry. The nonprofit organization awards grants for research focusing on smoking-related illnesses. Studies have shown a strong association between chronic exposure to cigarette smoke and lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States.