The University of Southern California study claims that e-cigarettes are related to mitochondrial gene and immune response gene disorders

Blue Hole New Consumer Report, November 24 news, according to foreign news reports, the latest e-cigarette research from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California shows that, like smoking, the use of e-cigarettes is related to the imbalance of mitochondrial genes and immune response genes.

Since its launch, e-cigarettes have been known as a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes for adult smokers. When the study began to raise different opinions, many people questioned whether smoking should still be attributed to the adverse effects, because most e-cigarette users are either dual users who also smoke or have a history of smoking.

Now, a team of researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California has proved that regardless of the effects of previous smoking, the use of e-cigarettes is related to adverse biological changes that may lead to disease. The study published in Scientific Reports shows that e-cigarette users experience a similar pattern of gene regulation changes as smokers, although these changes are more widespread among smokers.

"Our research is the first to investigate the biological effects of adult e-cigarette users using e-cigarettes, while considering their past smoking exposure." said corresponding author, Dr. Ahmad Besaratinia, professor of research population and public health sciences. "Our data shows that e-cigarettes are very similar to smoking and are related to mitochondrial gene disorders and the destruction of molecular pathways involved in immune and inflammatory responses, which control health and disease states."

The researchers recruited a diverse group of 82 healthy adults and divided them into three categories: current e-cigarette users, with and without previous smoking history; people who only smoke cigarettes; and one who has never smoked And a control group of people who never smoked e-cigarettes. They conducted a comprehensive face-to-face interview to obtain a detailed e-cigarette and smoking history from each participant. The team validated these data by measuring the concentration of cotinine (the breakdown product of nicotine) by biochemical analysis of the participants' blood.

Using next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics data analysis, the researchers then performed a genome-wide search for changes in gene regulation in the blood cells of each participant. When the normal regulation of genes is disrupted and the genes are dysregulated, this dysregulation can interfere with gene function and cause disease.

For current e-cigarette users, they further carried out computational modeling to determine whether the detected genetic disorder was related to their current e-cigarette intensity and duration or their past smoking intensity and duration.

"We found that more than 80% of the genetic disorders in e-cigarettes are related to the intensity and duration of current e-cigarettes." Besaratinia said. "The genetic disorder detected in e-cigarettes has nothing to do with the intensity or duration of their previous smoking."

In previous studies, Besaratinia and his team have shown that e-cigarette users will produce some of the same cancer-related molecular changes in oral tissues as smokers. They also found that the genome of e-cigarettes had the same cancer-related chemical changes as smokers.

In this study, they found that in e-cigarettes and smokers, mitochondrial genes are the priority targets of genetic disorders. They also found that the immune response genes of e-cigarettes and smokers were significantly dysregulated.

Besaratinia said that these findings are not only novel and significant, but they are also interrelated because there is increasing evidence that mitochondria play a key role in immunity and inflammation.

"When mitochondria are dysfunctional, they release key molecules," Besaratinia said. "The released molecules can be used as a signal to the immune system to trigger an immune response that leads to inflammation. This is not only important for maintaining health, but also plays a key role in the development of various diseases, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and metabolic diseases. And cancer."

Adults are not the only ones who smoke e-cigarettes. The US Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 2 million middle school students in the United States report using e-cigarettes. Besaratinia said this is one of the main reasons why the team's research is so important to formulating e-cigarette policies.

"Given the prevalence of e-cigarettes among young non-smokers, our findings have important implications for regulators," Besaratinia said. "In order to protect public health, these institutions urgently need scientific evidence to provide information for the supervision of the manufacture, distribution and marketing of e-cigarettes."

Next, the team plans to identify and investigate common chemicals in e-cigarette vapor and cigarette smoke to find out which chemicals may have similar adverse effects on e-cigarettes and smokers.

In addition to Besaratinia, the other authors of the study are Stella Tommasi, Niccolo Pabustan and Kimberly D. Siegmund of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, and Meng Li and Yibu Chen of the Bioinformatics Services Department of the University of Southern California Library.

This work was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (1R21CA268197) and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the University of California (28IR-0060 and T31IR1839). The bioinformatics software and computing resources used in the analysis were funded by the Research Office of the University of Southern California and the Norris Medical Library.