He Xiaojia, Meister Maureen, Jeon Jennifer, Alqahtani Saeed, Cushenan Pam, Weaver Scott, Luo Ruiyan, Black Marilyn, Shannahan Jonathan, Wright Christa
Chemical Insights Research Institute, UL Research Institutes, Marietta, Georgia 30067, United States.
School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States.
Environ Health (Wash). 2025 Apr 2;3(7):733-746. doi: 10.1021/envhealth.4c00276. eCollection 2025 Jul 18.
Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDSs), commonly termed e-cigarettes, have been advertised as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes and promoted for smoking cessation. However, emerging evidence suggests a connection between e-cigarette use or vaping and an increased risk of oral disease, particularly among minoritized populations such as Black and African Americans (AAs). AA communities have historically experienced disproportionate harm from tobacco use, which could extend to vaping. In this study, we recruited 20 AAs and 28 individuals of other races, oversampled for vapers, with no statistical differences in age, sex, sugar intake, income, or education across groups. Whole saliva samples collected at the time of the visit were processed for untargeted UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS proteomics and HPLC-MS/MS metabolomics. Our results revealed vaping preferentially impaired redox pathways and amino acid metabolism among AAs, with elevated malondialdehyde levels and an oxidized glutathione to glutathione ratio and lowered levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and ascorbate. Salivary proteomics demonstrated salivary secretion was upregulated in AAs while Fc gamma R-mediated phagocytosis, bacterial invasion defense, natural killer cell function, leukocyte migration, and phagosome function were downregulated, suggesting dysregulated innate immune function in AA vapers. Additionally, focal adhesion, cell-substrate junction, and actin cytoskeleton regulation were downregulated in AA vapers, indicating that mucous epithelium barrier integrity may be disrupted. Lastly, the Community Periodontal Index of Treatment Need (CPITN), a dental assessment tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to evaluate periodontal health and determine the need for treatment, revealed that a significantly higher proportion of AA vapers had CPITN scores of 3 or higher, suggesting the need for further clinical assessment of periodontal disease. Collectively, our results suggest that AAs may be more susceptible to oral health effects of vaping than individuals of other racial groups, with elevated levels of oxidative stress, dysregulated innate immune function, mucous epithelium barrier integrity disruption, and varying nicotine metabolism.
电子尼古丁输送系统（ENDS），通常被称为电子烟，已被宣传为比传统烟草香烟更安全的替代品，并被推广用于戒烟。然而，新出现的证据表明，使用电子烟或吸电子烟与口腔疾病风险增加之间存在关联，尤其是在黑人和非裔美国人（AA）等少数族裔人群中。AA群体在历史上因烟草使用而遭受了不成比例的伤害，这种伤害可能会延伸到吸电子烟。在这项研究中，我们招募了20名AA和28名其他种族的个体，对吸电子烟者进行了过度抽样，各组在年龄、性别、糖摄入量、收入或教育程度方面没有统计学差异。在就诊时采集的全唾液样本用于非靶向超高效液相色谱-电喷雾串联质谱蛋白质组学和高效液相色谱-串联质谱代谢组学分析。我们的结果显示，吸电子烟优先损害了AA人群的氧化还原途径和氨基酸代谢，丙二醛水平升高，氧化型谷胱甘肽与谷胱甘肽的比例增加，葡萄糖-6-磷酸脱氢酶和抗坏血酸水平降低。唾液蛋白质组学表明，AA人群的唾液分泌上调，而FcγR介导的吞噬作用、细菌入侵防御、自然杀伤细胞功能、白细胞迁移和吞噬体功能下调，这表明AA吸电子烟者的先天免疫功能失调。此外，AA吸电子烟者的粘着斑、细胞-基质连接和肌动蛋白细胞骨架调节下调，表明粘液上皮屏障完整性可能受到破坏。最后，世界卫生组织（WHO）开发的用于评估牙周健康和确定治疗需求的牙科评估工具——社区牙周治疗需求指数（CPITN）显示，AA吸电子烟者中CPITN评分为3或更高的比例显著更高，这表明需要对牙周疾病进行进一步的临床评估。总体而言，我们的结果表明，与其他种族群体的个体相比，AA人群可能更容易受到吸电子烟对口腔健康的影响，其氧化应激水平升高、先天免疫功能失调、粘液上皮屏障完整性破坏以及尼古丁代谢各异。
