According to a new study, e-cigarette users develop the same cancer-related molecular changes as traditional cigarette smokers.
Are electronic cigarettes as harmful to health as tobacco? Although it is still impossible to confirm this, an American study published in the journal Epigenetics shows that important biological changes in the DNA of smokers are also observed in people who vape. Results which confirm a recent British survey which concluded that the electronic cigarette is not without consequences on health and that it is urgent to better regulate its use.
Gene dysfunction
Vapers show chemical changes similar to traditional smokers in their overall genome and in parts of their DNA. These specific chemical alterations, known as epigenetic changes, can cause genes to malfunction and are commonly found in almost all types of human cancer as well as other serious diseases.
“This does not mean that these people will develop cancer, tempers Ahmad Besaratinia, lead author of the study. VSWhat we see is that the same changes in chemical labels detectable in tumors of cancer patients are found in people who vape or smoke. This is likely due to exposure to carcinogenic chemicals found in cigarette smoke and, at much lower levels, in e-cigarette vapor..”
Potential immediate public health and policy implications
To conduct their study, the researchers compared three groups of people: vapers, traditional smokers and a control group of people who had never vaped or smoked. Blood samples were used to compare changes in the level of two specific chemical tags attached to DNA, known to influence gene activity and function. Of the 45 study participants, vapers and smokers both showed a significant reduction in levels of both chemical tags compared to the control group. This is the first study to show that vapers, like smokers, have these biologically important changes detectable in their blood cells.
“Our new study demonstrates that epigenetic mechanisms, specifically changes in chemical tags attached to DNA, may contribute to abnormal gene expression in vapers and smokers.”, explains Ahmad Besaratinia. Given the established role that many genes play in human diseases, such as cancer, “this investigation should provide invaluable information, which could have immediate public health and policy implications”adds the researcher.
He and his team plan to continue their research. “The next step will be to look at the whole genome and identify all the genes targeted by these two chemical changes between vapers and smokers.”he concludes.
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