Vaping Linked To Biological Changes That Lead To Diseases

Vaping, without previous cigarette smoking, is linked to biological changes that can cause inflammation leading to disease, a study published recently in the journal Scientific Reports found, Sommer Brokaw reported for United Press International (UPI).

Photo Insert: The vaping debate continues

University of Southern California (USC) researchers found that chemicals in e-cigarette vapors persistently affect cell function, causing chronic inflammation, which may then lead to disorders that include cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases, as well as cancer.

While these biological effects were found independent of previous cigarette smoking, the changes are more extensive in people who smoke, according to the researchers.

"Our study, for the first time, investigates the biological effects of vaping in adult e-cigarette users, while simultaneously accounting for their past smoking exposure," study corresponding author Ahmad Besaratinia.

"Our data indicate that vaping, much like smoking, is associated with dysregulation of mitochondrial genes and disruption of molecular pathways involved in immunity and the inflammatory response, which govern health versus disease state," said Besaratinia, a professor of research population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

The research team previously found that e-cigarette users develop some of the same cancer-related molecular changes on oral tissue as cigarette smokers. They also found that vaping is associated with similar biological changes.

For the study, researchers divided 82 healthy adult participants into three groups, including current vapers, current smokers, and non-smokers and non-vapers, the study published in Scientific Reports showed.

Researchers then conducted a genome-wide search for changes in gene regulation among these participants and used further computer modeling to determine whether the gene disruption was separate from past smoking.

They found that for both vapers and smokers, mitochondrial genes are preferential targets of gene dysregulations, and both populations had significant dysregulation of immune response genes.

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