Tobacco smoke has a devastating impact on health. Despite evidence that tobacco harms lungs and other organs, >20% of the U.S. population continue to smoke regularly. Tobacco smoke causes COPD and lung cancer. Long term tobacco exposure triggers an inflammatory response in the lung that contributes to the pathogenesis of COPD. Moreover, COPD is a common and important independent risk factor for lung cancer and thus, COPD may be thought of as a pre-cancerous state. More specifically, tobacco smoke causes airway surface liquid/mucus dehydration and increased incidence of viral infections, suggesting that the Lung's Innate Defense System has been impaired. These changes are thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of COPD. In response to new legislation aimed at curbing the sale of cigarettes, the tobacco industry has developed tobacco alternatives that seek to evade this legislation. Usage of """"""""little cigars"""""""" which are often flavored and are thus attractive to younger smokers, has risen 240%, while in NC, up to 50% of college students claim to have tried Hookah, with >10% being regular Hookah smokers. Whilst many of these tobacco alternatives are perceived to be """"""""safer"""""""", their impact on lung health is unknown. Thus, we propose to measure the potential adverse impact of tobacco alternatives on the lung's innate defense system. Projects I and II (Tarran and Kesimer) are focused on determining the impact of tobacco alternatives on specific aspects of this system, namely, airway surface liquid homeostasis and mucin/mucus and will use an innovative in vitro smoke exposure system to measure specific biomarkers of innate lung defense as well as obtain airway samples from smokers of alternate tobacco. In Project III (Doerschuk), we propose to develop a novel animal model of smoke exposure that more closely mimics the chronic bronchitis phenotype seen in humans with COPD. This model will be used to validate tobacco exposure biomarkers seen in Projects I and II as well as to determine epigenetic changes following in vivo exposure to alternative tobacco. Project IV (Jaspers) will determine genomic biomarkers associated with tobacco alternatives from samples obtained from human volunteers. Focusing on changes in antiviral host defense in these subjects, this model will be used to integrate observations made in the other projects with findings obtained from humans infected with live attenuated influenza virus. Thus, using human and mouse in vivo and in vitro models, this project will identify novel biomarkers associated with tobacco-induced changes in lung innate defense, which can be applied to understand potential toxicity of any new and emerging tobacco products.

Public Health Relevance

Tobacco exposure impairs multiple arms of the lung's innate defense system including mucus clearance (i.e., the lung's ability to clean itself) and resistance to inhaled pathogens such as viruses. These changes are contributory to the development of COPD. The potential impact of new and emerging tobacco products on the lung's innate defense system is totally unknown. We propose to describe the effects of such tobacco alternatives on lung health using in vitro and in vivo model systems as well as obtaining biomarker samples from smokers of tobacco alternatives such as Hookah and Little Cigars. Such knowledge may help dispel the myth that new tobacco products represent a safer alternative to cigarettes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Specialized Center (P50)
Project #
3P50HL120100-02S1
Application #
8916361
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BDCN-A (40))
Program Officer
Punturieri, Antonello
Project Start
2013-09-19
Project End
2018-08-31
Budget Start
2014-09-12
Budget End
2015-09-11
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$99,999
Indirect Cost
$34,210
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Physiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
608195277
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
Keating, James E; Minges, John T; Randell, Scott H et al. (2018) Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry for High-Throughput Quantification of Nicotine and Cotinine. Anal Methods 10:46-50
Reidel, Boris; Radicioni, Giorgia; Clapp, Phillip W et al. (2018) E-Cigarette Use Causes a Unique Innate Immune Response in the Lung, Involving Increased Neutrophilic Activation and Altered Mucin Secretion. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 197:492-501
Ghosh, Arunava; Coakley, Raymond C; Mascenik, Teresa et al. (2018) Chronic E-Cigarette Exposure Alters the Human Bronchial Epithelial Proteome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 198:67-76
Rebuli, Meghan E; Speen, Adam M; Clapp, Phillip W et al. (2017) Novel applications for a noninvasive sampling method of the nasal mucosa. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 312:L288-L296
Esther Jr, Charles R; Hill, David B; Button, Brian et al. (2017) Sialic acid-to-urea ratio as a measure of airway surface hydration. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 312:L398-L404
Kesimer, Mehmet; Ford, Amina A; Ceppe, Agathe et al. (2017) Airway Mucin Concentration as a Marker of Chronic Bronchitis. N Engl J Med 377:911-922
Davis, Eric S; Sassano, M Flori; Goodell, Henry et al. (2017) E-Liquid Autofluorescence can be used as a Marker of Vaping Deposition and Third-Hand Vape Exposure. Sci Rep 7:7459
Clapp, Phillip W; Pawlak, Erica A; Lackey, Justin T et al. (2017) Flavored e-cigarette liquids and cinnamaldehyde impair respiratory innate immune cell function. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 313:L278-L292
Clapp, Phillip W; Jaspers, Ilona (2017) Electronic Cigarettes: Their Constituents and Potential Links to Asthma. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 17:79
Rowell, Temperance R; Reeber, Steven L; Lee, Shernita L et al. (2017) Flavored e-cigarette liquids reduce proliferation and viability in the CALU3 airway epithelial cell line. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 313:L52-L66

Showing the most recent 10 out of 20 publications