Can Altered Tobacco Cut the Cancer Risk?

Source from:  (Raleigh) News & Observer Mar. 17, 2008 03/19/2008

N.C. State researchers reported today that genetically modifying burley tobacco can lower levels of carcinogens in cured tobacco as much as six-fold. The results could lead to tobacco products -- especially smokeless products -- containing fewer cancer-causing agents, NCSU said in a news release. The research is sponsored by Philip Morris USA. NC State's Ralph Dewey, professor of crop science, and Ramsey Lewis, assistant professor of crop science, worked with scientists from the University of Kentucky to knock out, or stop the effect of, a gene that turns nicotine into nornicotine. Some nicotine is turned into nornicotine as plants age; nornicotine converts to the carcinogen N-nitrosonornicotine, or NNN, as the tobacco is cured, processed and stored, the release said. The genetic modification brought about a 50 percent overall reduction in the class of harmful compounds called tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs. TSNAs are reported to be among the most important tobacco-related compounds implicated in various cancers in laboratory experiments, Lewis said. The research results were published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal. Enditem