Similar DNA Damage in Vapers & Smokers

More than 10% of American teenagers and more than 3% of adults frequently use e-cigarettes, which were originally promoted as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes. However, research is rapidly connecting vaping, or the use of e-cigarettes, to many of the same serious illnesses that strike smokers. In a ground-breaking study, a team of scientists from the USC Keck School of Medicine examined epithelial cells from the mouths of smokers, vapers, and those who had never smoked or vaporized. They discovered that DNA damage in smokers and vapers was comparable and was more than twice as high as in non-users. The frequency of smoking or vaping was associated with greater DNA damage.

Additionally, it was higher among vapers who favored sweet, fruity, or mint flavors as well as mods and vape pods.

“For the first time, we showed that the more vapers used e-cigarettes, and the longer they used them, the more DNA damage occurred in their oral cells,” said Ahmad Besaratinia, Ph.D., MPH, professor of research population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine and the study’s senior author.

“The same pattern held up in smokers.”

DNA damage to oral epithelial cells, which line the mouth, is an early change that is associated with an increased risk for many types of chronic diseases, including cancer and inflammatory diseases.

The study, which was recently published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to clearly distinguish between the DNA damage that happens in smokers and only vapers. It also provides specifics about the risks that vapers face depending on how frequently they vape, what devices and flavors they use, as well as how often they use them. Because most vapers have a history of smoking cigarettes or are dual users—that is, they consume tobacco cigarettes in addition to vaping—they are challenging subjects for research.

“We designed our study to tease out the effects of vaping in e-cigarette users who were neither cigarette smokers nor dual users at any point in their lives,” said Besaratinia.

The new study expands on prior work by Besaratinia and his team, which shows a connection between vaping and changes in gene expression, epigenetic changes, and other biological changes that may play a role in the onset of disease.

“The devices and flavors that are most popular and highly consumed by youth vapers, as well as adults, are the ones that are associated with the most DNA damage,” Besaratinia said. “Clearly these results have significant implications, both for public health and regulatory agencies.”

Use more, do more harm

72 healthy persons were recruited by the researchers, and they divided them into three groups that were matched for age, race, and gender: current vapers (who had never smoked), current smokers (who had never vaped), and individuals who had never smoked or used a vaporizer before. To be sure that any detected effects could be specifically attributed to either vaping or smoking, they used thorough questionnaires, interviews, and biochemical tests to confirm each participant’s medical history.

Besaratinia and his team also gathered information on the quantity and duration of participants’ smoking and vaping, as well as information on the types of vaping equipment and flavors they employed. After that, they took a sample of epithelial cells from each participant’s mouth and examined them for damage to particular genes that are known to signify a genome attack.

According to the findings, smoking and vaping both cause similar amounts of DNA damage—2.6 and 2.2 times more than nonusers, respectively. The highest amounts of DNA damage were found in vapers who used pod-based devices, followed by those who used mod-based devices. Vapes with sweet scents were found to cause the most DNA damage, followed by those with mint/menthol and fruit flavors.

Popular But Detrimental

According to Besaratinia, the findings are extremely important for public health organizations and regulators that work to prevent unsafe items from reaching vulnerable populations like children and teenagers. About 85% of teenagers who vape use flavored vapes, making the most widely used items also appear to be the most dangerous in terms of causing DNA damage.

The team’s subsequent job is to conduct a larger-scale replication of the results. They also intend to research additional biological consequences of DNA damage that are even more directly connected to the development of chronic disease.

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