Clearing the Haze: How Does Nicotine Affect Hematopoiesis before and after Birth?

Hematopoiesis is a tightly regulated process orchestrated by cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic cues. Over the past several decades, much effort has been focused on understanding how these cues regulate hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function. Many endogenous key regulators of hematopoiesis have been identified and extensively characterized. Less is known about the mechanisms of long-term effects of environmental toxic compounds on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and their mature immune cell progeny. Research over the past several decades has demonstrated that tobacco products are extremely toxic and pose huge risks to human health by causing diseases like cancer, respiratory illnesses, strokes, and more. Recently, electronic cigarettes have been promoted as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco products and have become increasingly popular among younger generations. Nicotine, the highly toxic compound found in many traditional tobacco products, is also found in most electronic cigarettes, calling into question their purported “safety”. Although it is known that nicotine is toxic, the pathophysiology of disease in exposed people remains under investigation. One plausible contributor to altered disease susceptibility is altered hematopoiesis and associated immune dysfunction. In this review, we focus on research that has addressed how HSCs and mature blood cells respond to nicotine, as well as identify remaining questions.

Examining Twitter Discourse on Electronic Cigarette and Tobacco Consumption During National Cancer Prevention Month in 2018: Topic Modeling and Geospatial Analysis

Background Examining public perception of tobacco products is critical for effective tobacco policy making and public education outreach. While the link between traditional tobacco products and lung cancer is well established, it is not known how the public perceives the association between electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and lung cancer. In addition, it is unclear how members of the public interact with official messages during cancer campaigns on tobacco consumption and lung cancer. Objective In this study, we aimed to analyze e-cigarette and smoking tweets in the context of lung cancer during National Cancer Prevention Month in 2018 and examine how e-cigarette and traditional tobacco product discussions relate to implementation of tobacco control policies across different states in the United States. Methods We mined tweets that contained the term “lung cancer” on Twitter from February to March 2018. The data set contained 13,946 publicly available tweets that occurred during National Cancer Prevention Month (February 2018), and 10,153 tweets that occurred during March 2018. E-cigarette–related and smoking-related tweets were retrieved, using topic modeling and geospatial analysis. Results Debates on harmfulness (454/915, 49.7%), personal experiences (316/915, 34.5%), and e-cigarette risks (145/915, 15.8%) were the major themes of e-cigarette tweets related to lung cancer. Policy discussions (2251/3870, 58.1%), smoking risks (843/3870, 21.8%), and personal experiences (776/3870, 20.1%) were the major themes of smoking tweets related to lung cancer. Geospatial analysis showed that discussion on e-cigarette risks was positively correlated with the number of state-level smoke-free policies enacted for e-cigarettes. In particular, the number of indoor and on campus smoke-free policies was related to the number of tweets on e-cigarette risks (smoke-free indoor, r49=0.33, P=.02; smoke-free campus, r49=0.32, P=.02). The total number of e-cigarette policies was also positively related to the number of tweets on e-cigarette risks (r49=0.32, P=.02). In contrast, the number of smoking policies was not significantly associated with any of the smoking themes in the lung cancer discourse (P>.13). Conclusions Though people recognized the importance of traditional tobacco control policies in reducing lung cancer incidences, their views on e-cigarette risks were divided, and discussions on the importance of e-cigarette policy control were missing from public discourse. Findings suggest the need for health organizations to continuously engage the public in discussions on the potential health risks of e-cigarettes and raise awareness of the insidious lobbying efforts from the tobacco industry.

Polydrug use of Tobacco and Cannabis in a Cohort of Young People from Central Catalonia (2012-2020)

Background: The aim was to estimate the prevalence of tobacco and cannabis use and the relationship between these two substances in a cohort of young people from Central Catalonia in the period 2012-2020 according to sex and year of follow-up.Methods: Prospective longitudinal study with 828 students in 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) in Central Catalonia, who answered a survey on health behaviour in 2012 (828 young people), 2016 (342 young people) and in 2020 (271 young people). The dependent variables were traditional tobacco use, cannabis use in the last month and polydrug use of both substances. The independent variables were sex and year of follow-up. For the prevalence analysis, frequencies and percentages were analysed with their respective 95% confidence intervals. Chi-Square and Cochran's Q contrast were used to test the relationship between independent and paired qualitative variables. A significance level of 0.05 was set. Results: There are significant differences between the prevalence of smoking cannabis in the last month in boys and girls aged 19-20 years and 23-24 years. Girls who did not use traditional tobacco in 2012, 0.9% (0.1-6.5), 1.9% (0.4-7.5) and 7.5% (3.8-14.5) did use cannabis in 2012, 2016 and 2020 respectively, with a significant increase over the period analysed (p-value = 0.014). Boys who did not smoke traditional tobacco in 2012, 3.5% (1.1-10.6), 14.4% (8.3-23.9) and 14.3% (8.2-23.6) did smoke cannabis in 2012, 2016 and 2020 respectively, with a significant change between 2012 and 2020 (p-value = 0.006). Conclusions: There is a strong association between tobacco use and cannabis use, with those young people who smoke tobacco regularly having the highest prevalence of cannabis use. There is a significant percentage of young people where the gateway to smoked drugs is no longer tobacco but cannabis itself.

Research on Trade Data Encryption of Tobacco Enterprises Based on Adversarial Neural Network

In order to overcome the problems of long encryption process, low data security and poor anti attack rate of traditional tobacco enterprise trade data encryption methods, a trade data encryption of tobacco enterprises based on adversarial neural network is proposed. This method optimizes the traditional neural network by generating countermeasure network, so as to form adversarial neural network. In the adversarial neural network, the encryption processing of tobacco enterprise trade data is completed through data feature classification, design of tobacco enterprise trade data encryption protocol and data encryption channel. The experimental results show that the encryption process of this method takes between 6s-20s, and the encryption efficiency is high, and this method can effectively scramble the original arrangement of the data, so as to effectively hide the effective information in the tobacco enterprise trade data, improve the anti attack rate of the data, and effectively improve the security of the data.

Examining Twitter Discourse on Electronic Cigarette and Tobacco Consumption During National Cancer Prevention Month in 2018: Topic Modeling and Geospatial Analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Examining public perception of tobacco products is critical for effective tobacco policy making and public education outreach. While the link between traditional tobacco products and lung cancer is well established, it is not known how the public perceives the association between electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and lung cancer. In addition, it is unclear how members of the public interact with official messages during cancer campaigns on tobacco consumption and lung cancer. OBJECTIVE In this study, we aimed to analyze e-cigarette and smoking tweets in the context of lung cancer during National Cancer Prevention Month in 2018 and examine how e-cigarette and traditional tobacco product discussions relate to implementation of tobacco control policies across different states in the United States. METHODS We mined tweets that contained the term “lung cancer” on Twitter from February to March 2018. The data set contained 13,946 publicly available tweets that occurred during National Cancer Prevention Month (February 2018), and 10,153 tweets that occurred during March 2018. E-cigarette–related and smoking-related tweets were retrieved, using topic modeling and geospatial analysis. RESULTS Debates on harmfulness (454/915, 49.7%), personal experiences (316/915, 34.5%), and e-cigarette risks (145/915, 15.8%) were the major themes of e-cigarette tweets related to lung cancer. Policy discussions (2251/3870, 58.1%), smoking risks (843/3870, 21.8%), and personal experiences (776/3870, 20.1%) were the major themes of smoking tweets related to lung cancer. Geospatial analysis showed that discussion on e-cigarette risks was positively correlated with the number of state-level smoke-free policies enacted for e-cigarettes. In particular, the number of indoor and on campus smoke-free policies was related to the number of tweets on e-cigarette risks (smoke-free indoor, <i>r</i>49=0.33, <i>P</i>=.02; smoke-free campus, <i>r</i>49=0.32, <i>P</i>=.02). The total number of e-cigarette policies was also positively related to the number of tweets on e-cigarette risks (<i>r</i>49=0.32, <i>P</i>=.02). In contrast, the number of smoking policies was not significantly associated with any of the smoking themes in the lung cancer discourse (<i>P</i>&gt;.13). CONCLUSIONS Though people recognized the importance of traditional tobacco control policies in reducing lung cancer incidences, their views on e-cigarette risks were divided, and discussions on the importance of e-cigarette policy control were missing from public discourse. Findings suggest the need for health organizations to continuously engage the public in discussions on the potential health risks of e-cigarettes and raise awareness of the insidious lobbying efforts from the tobacco industry.

Recent updates on biomarkers of exposure and systemic toxicity in e-cigarette users and EVALI

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), or e-cigarettes, are emerging tobacco products that produce aerosols by heating e-liquids, which most often consist of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin along with various flavoring compounds, bypassing the combustion that occurs in the use of traditional tobacco cigarettes. These products have seen a drastic increase in popularity in recent years both as smoking cessation devices as well as among younger generations, due in large part to the widespread perception among consumers that e-cigs are significantly less harmful for health than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Due to the novelty of ENDS as well as their rapidly increasing use, research into biomarkers of e-cig exposure and toxicity have lagged behind their popularity, leaving important questions about their potential toxicity unanswered. Research into potential biomarkers of acute, chronic e-cig use and E-cigarette- or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury is necessary for informing both clinical and regulatory decision-making. We aim to provide an updated review of recent research into potential circulating, genomic, transcriptomic and epigenetic biomarkers of exposure to and toxicity of e-cigs. We additionally highlight research areas that warrant additional study to gain better understanding of health risks associated with ENDS use, as well as to provide validation of existing data and methods for measuring and analyzing e-cig-associated biomarkers in human and animal biofluids, tissues and cells. This review also highlights ongoing efforts within the WNY Center for Research on Flavored Tobacco for research into novel biomarkers in extracellular vesicles that may be associated with short- and long-term ENDS use.