Abstract
Abstract Objective: Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are battery-powered devices that aerosolize a liquid (i.e. “e-liquid”) composed of propylene glycol (PG) and/or glycerol (GLY), flavorings and most commonly, nicotine. Suspension of fine particles in a gas forms the aerosol, that is inhaled (i.e. “vaped”). As these small hydrophilic molecules have a short serum/urine half-live, we hypothesized that short-term cessation of vaping in regular users would change serum proteomic signatures. Design and method: Thirty regular e-cigarette users were enrolled in this randomized, investigator-blinded, three-period crossover-study. The periods consisted of nicotine-vaping (nicotine-session), nicotine-free vaping (nicotine-free-session), and complete cessation of vaping (stop-session), all maintained for five days before the session began. Multiparametric metabolomic analyses on urine and serum were used to verify subjects’ protocol compliance, which was 95%. Serum proteomic analysis was performed with Sequential Windowed Acquisition of All theoretical Fragment Ion Mass Spectra (SWATH-MS) Results: Complete cessation of vaping allowed to identify 13 proteins in the serum, which were differentially modulated among sessions. The following proteins of coagulation cascade: anti thrombin III, heparin cofactor II and alpha-2-antiplasmin were higher in the stop-session compared to nicotine- and nicotine-free session. Compared to stop-session, two proteins of complement cascade were lower in the stop-session compared to the nicotine-session. Finally; lower levels of apolipoprotein E were also found in the stop-session compared to the nicotine-free session. (Table 1) Conclusions: In conclusion, our study reveals that short-term e-cigarette cessation in regular users modified several proteins involved in the coagulation pathways, complement cascade and lipid transport. E-cigarette cessation could have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular health by decreasing the level of proteins involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, irrespective of the presence of nicotine. This will need further researches in order to confirm our findings in cellular and animal models and to find potential biomarkers of vaping toxicity.
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