New paper on impact of tobacco and vaping on epigenome

Today, our manuscript on the impact of smoking and vaping was published in Cancer Research. Dissecting the impact of smoking on the epigenome across diverse cell types, including directly exposed (cheek) and not directly exposed (blood or cervicovaginal samples), we find that cells alter in their responses and modulated pathways due to smoking.

Changes in buccal epithelial cells of smokers that are directly exposed to the tobacco are also observed in smokeless tobacco users and in e-cigarette users with a very limited smoking history. Importantly, the same alterations are also observed in cancer tissue or biopsies that later progressed to lung cancer. Our findings suggest further investigation into the long-term health implications of snuff tobacco and e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tools. Pending further validation, buccal samples may also have the potential to monitor individual disease risk.

This work has been featured in several news outlets on Mar 20, 2024, including:

Cover of The Times UK
Times Radio
BBC Radio 4, News at One
Sky News (Live) at 15:20
Sky News at 17:30
Tonight with Andrew Marr

For the first time, vaping has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Senior researcher at the University of London and author of this report Dr @chiara_herzog discusses her findings with @KamaliMelbourne.

🔗 https://t.co/qR8IQpwONO

📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/59pZukgqCt
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 20, 2024

Read the paper here:

References

2024

Cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use induce shared DNA methylation changes linked to carcinogenesis

Chiara Herzog, Allison Jones, Iona Evans, and 7 more authors

Cancer Research, 2024

Abs HTML

Tobacco use is a major modifiable risk factor for adverse health outcomes, including cancer, and elicits profound epigenetic changes thought to be associated with long-term cancer risk. While electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have been advocated as harm reduction alternatives to tobacco products, recent studies have revealed potential detrimental effects, highlighting the urgent need for further research into the molecular and health impacts of e-cigarettes. Here, we applied computational deconvolution methods to dissect the cell- and tissue-specific epigenetic effects of tobacco or e-cigarette use on DNA methylation (DNAme) in over 3,500 buccal/saliva, cervical, or blood samples, spanning epithelial and immune cells at directly and indirectly exposed sites. The 535 identified smoking-related DNAme loci (CpGs) clustered into four functional groups, including detoxification or growth signaling, based on cell type and anatomical site. Loci hypermethylated in buccal epithelial cells of smokers associated with NOTCH1/RUNX3/growth factor receptor signaling also exhibited elevated methylation in cancer tissue and progressing lung carcinoma in situ lesions, and hypermethylation of these sites predicted lung cancer development in buccal samples collected from smokers up to 22 years prior to diagnosis, suggesting a potential role in driving carcinogenesis. Alarmingly, these CpGs were also hypermethylated in e-cigarette users with a limited smoking history. This study sheds light on the cell type-specific changes to the epigenetic landscape induced by smoking-related products.

References

2024

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