PROCESS FOR ASSESSING RISK OF SUBSTANCE ADMINISTRATION

摘要

A process for assessing risk that administration of a substance will suppress immune competence in a population of subjects is provided. Such a substance may be a substance related to, contained in or derived from a tobacco product or, more generally, a substance concerning which it is desired to assess risk of administration of the substance.

主权项

1. A process for assessing risk that administration of a substance will suppress immune competence in a population of subjects, the process comprising:
collecting a sample of blood from each a plurality of subjects, said subjects being members of the population; isolating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the sample of blood to form isolated PBMCs; administering the substance to the isolated PBMCs, thereby forming substance-exposed PBMCs; stimulating the substance-exposed PBMCs with a Toll-like receptor ligand to form Toll-like receptor-ligand stimulated substance-exposed PBMCs; measuring one or more responses of effector cells in the Toll-like receptor-ligand stimulated substance-exposed PBMCs to form one or more measured responses; aggregating the one or more measured responses from each of the plurality of subjects to form one or more response aggregates; comparing the one or more response aggregates to one or more immune-competence-associated reference ranges,thereby assessing risk that administration of the substance will suppress immune competence in the population of subjects.