Essential Roles of Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Signaling in Airway Smooth Muscle from Mice following Nicotine, Pyoverdine, and their Co-exposure Authors: Subika Khatoon, Ed Wilson Santos, Yun-Min Zheng, Yong-Xiao Wang Corresponding Author: Yong-Xiao Wang, wangy@amc.edu

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Consumption of nicotine, a major active component of cigarettes or e-cigarette smoke, is a global health problem, causing a myriad of life-threatening diseases. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of lung infections and often exacerbate nicotine-associated lung diseases. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we aim to address these important questions by performing a series of experiments. establish a clinical threshold of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infection in a COPD animal model and determine the underlying molecular mechanisms underlying the mitochondrial dysfunctions in Airway Smooth Muscle Cells (ASMCs). Utilizing in vitro and in vivo models, our data revealed that mice following inhalation of nicotine showed increased lung resistance, decreased lung compliance, and elevated airway resistance in vivo. In support, nicotine caused airway hyperresponsiveness in isolated mouse tracheal and bronchial smooth muscles. We also found that reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was largely increased in isolated mitochondria from mice after nicotine inhalation. Application of pyoverdine, a primary active component of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, produced a similar effect on ROS production in isolated mouse airway smooth muscle (ASM) mitochondria. Furthermore, mice co-exposed to nicotine inhalation and pyoverdine had a higher increase in ROS production in isolated ASM mitochondria compared with mice following nicotine or pyoverdine exposure alone. In conclusion, our findings for the first time demonstrate mitochondrial ROS signaling plays essential roles in airway dysfunctions following nicotine, pyoverdine, and their co-exposure and may also offer new strategies to treat lung diseases induced by nicotine inhalation and/or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Funding: This work was supported by the NIH (R01HL122865, R03AG070784, and R01HL108232, to Yong-Xiao Wang). This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.