Vitamin may cure smoking disease

The lives of thousands of smokers crippled by a lung disease could be saved following a simple discovery by British scientists.

Sufferers from chronic emphysema, an illness which kills more people than lung cancer, could be cured using a form of vitamin A.

So far, retinoic acid - already used to treat severe acne - has been tested only on mice. But the researchers are confident trials on humans would be just as successful.

There is no known cure for emphysema, which causes progressive damage to the lungs and can eventually-kill. Although it is often the result of a lifetime's smoking, it can also affect people working in industries such as mining.

It can start as mild breathlessness but patients can end up needing oxygen pumped into their lungs to survive. Smokers in their 40s and 50s are often affected.

The scientists bred mice with all the hallmarks of the disease by giving them a chemical soon after birth to prevent tiny air sacs in their lungs developing properly. When adult, the mice had serious breathing problems.

But, after being given retinoic acid, the air sacs returned to normal.

The researchers believe the treatment works by triggering key genes into action. They say it could also be used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Prof Malcolm Maden, who headed the Medical Research Council team at King's College, London, told the European Respiratory Journal: 'This is a relatively simple compound to take. Being able to cure these conditions would be quite significant.'