All you need to know about your electronic cigarette and your DNA

Let's try to find out what effect the electronic cigarette and vaping on DNA have.

The argument of those who criticize the electronic cigarette is "there are not enough long-term studies" so we can know more about the risks of damaging. Although studies conducted by the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England have estimated that vaping is 95% safer than smoking, many people continue to put an equal sign between electronic cigarettes and classic cigarettes when it comes to risks. On the other hand, although invented in 2003, the electronic cigarette is still a "new" product, which is why we can not know what its long-term effects are.

 

In this case, how can SPC and PHE support so firmly that the dump is healthier than smoking?

They use evidence from short and medium-term clinical trials. Although short-term evidence is only to a certain extent conclusive, most scientific studies conducted so far have shown that the electronic cigarette is far less harmful to the body than smoking.

But, unfortunately, the results obtained so far have been misinterpreted by mass media and media trusts who support the economic interests of major tobacco manufacturers. For example, a recent study on the impact of electronic cigarettes on DNA has been communicated to the general public as evidence that "dying causes cancer", although it is totally untrue, the results of the study being mistakenly interpreted as a comparison between dying and smoking.

The way DNA is affected by electronic cigarette vapors is a matter of utmost importance. It has the potential to inform us about the risks caused by dirt compared to smoking, and at the same time to broaden our knowledge horizon in terms of changes in DNA. Therefore, it is crucial to have access to reliable evidence about the effects of electronic cigarettes on human DNA.

The fact that this type of research is in progress is welcoming us as good news. The new study will focus on DNA methylation in smokers, in order to obtain data on potential differences in long-term risk.

We talked with Dr. Suzi Gage, a researcher at the University of Liverpool (known for the "Do Not Tell Drugs" podcast) about his ongoing study, about DNA methylation, and about how vape can help.

 DNA methylation in relation to smoking and vaping

We should not be surprised that smoking has a major impact on DNA and is thought to have an impact on the DNA methylation process as well. Dr. Gage explains:

Just as we look at the whole genome as a whole to figure out how genetic variants help predict different diseases, we can also look at specific genomic locations where DNA methylation differs from individual to individual. Past studies have shown that there is a consistent difference in the methylated DNA profiles in those who smoke. We believe these differences were caused by smoking, although it is difficult to confirm - the exact causes being very difficult to determine.

Another fact that confirms Dr. Gage's findings is a 2016 study, with 16,000 participants, who concluded that the methylation of specific smoker areas is closely related to over 7,000 genes, representing around one third of total genes human.

The most conclusive results have demonstrated a direct link with genes associated with smoking disorders, such as cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Although most of the methylated areas returned to typical non-smoker values ​​five years after cessation, some changes persisted even 30 years after cessation of smoking.The researchers have issued several theories about how smoking affects methylation. One of these suggests DNA damage as a direct effect of smoke chemicals that cause cancer, as the repair process leads to the methylation of adjacent DNA areas, another being nicotine that could affect the manifestation of genes, which would have a impact on the methylation process. Other possibilities refer to carbon monoxide, which reduces the amount of oxygen in tissues, or smoke that can act indirectly through DNA binding factors.

The role of smoking is hard to prove in terms of differences in smoker methylation profiles, but certainly plays a major role. If we can confirm the validation of the link between methylation and the risk of cancer and other ailments, then we can estimate the future risks, only by analyzing the methylation process, informs Suzi.

 

Effects of Electronic Cigarettes and DNA: What do we know so far?

For the time being, there is not much evidence of vaping DNA affects DNA. Until now - a fact that has often happened in the case of robbery - few studies have been conducted and the results are generally contradictory.One of the British American Tobacco studies at the end of 2016 used the Ames test to test how to treat smoking with water. The conclusion was that the dump had no effect after 3 hours of exposure, whereas cigarette smoke had an effect in 24 minutes.

The latest studies on this subject analyze the effect of vapor on laboratory mice and the effect of nicotine and nitrosamine on various human cell cultures. The report of this study concluded that "the plague causes cancer" but it was not the subject of the study. The study showed that mice exposed to vapors were affected by lung, heart and bladder DNA but also revealed lung and human lung disease. However, the study did not provide a comparison with cigarette smoke, hence the difficulty of extrapolating the results of laboratory and human mice with human subjects.

The main problem remains, however, that the authors of the study have attributed the results of nitrosamine levels, although there is evidence of these levels published in the specialized press. Peter Hajek's conclusion to Science Media Center was that:There was no comparison with conventional cigarettes, but in this article, the authors confirm the key piece of this puzzle, of crucial relevance: Those who show up with up to 97 percent fewer chemicals of this kind than smokers. It should also be added that this percentage could well represent the level of chemicals that non-smokers can get from the environment.

 

 In other words, even if in theory the authors of the study were right, there is evidence that confirms that those who have water show a much lower amount of the same chemicals present in smokers. Although newspaper titles exaggerate about the study of laboratory mice and individual cells, this evidence is all that is needed to demonstrate that electronic cigarette, compared to smoking, is an activity that affects much less the human body.

Considering the above, it is clear that there are many gaps in the effects of DNA damaging, and the new study led by Dr. Gage comes to confirm this.Future study on DNA vapor and methylation

Against the backdrop described above - as well as public opinion on the unknown effects of damaging - the benefits of the future study are incontestable. The more we can collect more information about DNA and DNA, the better, especially if we can compare these results with those of smoking.

If the data are in support of the above, there is a chance to better understand the relative risk of smoking vapors. Dr. Gage emphasizes the need to be cautious about interpreting the results, but is generally optimistic about what has been so far:It is too early to comment on the results of the differences in DNA methylation - these can be directly involved in the impact that smoking has on cancer risk, but we can not know for sure.

Alternatively, they can be interpreted as "biomarkers" for cancer - meaning indicators of increased risk, but not the reason for increasing this risk.In any case, if we can see these differences between electronic cigarette users and smokers, we can have an overview of the potential differences in the long-term risk of smoking and dying without having to wait for many years to do so. With scientific advances in the field of DNA methylation, we will be able to learn more about the magnitude of cancer risk in the case of the dump, compared to the major risk of smoking cancer.