UW-CTRI staff and collaborators presented five posters at the University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine Research Day.
Dr. Matthew Tattersall created three posters based on data from the Cardiac and LUng E-cig Smoking Study (CLUES), a collaboration between staff from UW Cardiology and UW-CTRI. Tattersall presented two of the posters.
In one poster, he described a pilot study of 30 randomly selected participants from CLUES. The sample included 10 people who only vaped, 10 who only smoked, and 10 who did neither. Participant serum was drawn before and after product use. Participants who vaped and those who smoked had significant and similar rises in serum nicotine levels post-product use. Arterial endothelial cells from participants who vaped, exposed to pre-product use serum, had increases in a pro-inflammatory pathway associated with future cardiovascular disease events (interleukin-6). Following product use, vapers had further increased expression of genes in the IL-6 biosynthetic pathway. This raises concerns about the potential harms of chronic vaping, the researchers said.
- Tattersall MC, Esnault S, Stewart R, Swanson S, Steill J, Korcarz CE, Hansen KM, Zhang J, Baker TB, Stein JH. Effects of Nicotine-Containing Product Challenges on Interleukin-6 (IL-6) Pathway Expression in Human Pluripotent-Derived Arterial Endothelial Cells: The CLUES Study.
The second poster described results from CLUES involving 164 participants who only vaped, 117 who only smoked, and 114 who did neither. After participants used their products (or for the control group, rested), researchers tested various cardiovascular and autonomic measures. At baseline, vapers and control groups had similar baseline characteristics but, 15 minutes after product use, participants who vaped consistently had worse cardiovascular and autonomic measures after vaping compared to controls, including higher heart rates, blood pressures, arterial constriction, and impaired autonomic function measures.
The values for the vaping group were not statistically different from those who smoked, even though the average age of people who smoked was just less than 43 years old while the average age of those who vaped was slightly more than 27 years old. The researchers concluded these findings also raise concerns about potential harms of chronic vaping.
- Tattersall MC, Hughey CM, Piasecki TM, Korcarz CE, Hansen KM, Ott NR, Fiore MC, Baker TB, Stein JH. Acute Effects of Nicotine-Containing Product Challenges on Cardiovascular and Autonomic Function Among Electronic Cigarette Vapers, Combustible Cigarette Smokers, and Controls: The CLUES Study.
Dr. Christina Hughey presented the third CLUES poster involving 164 participants who only vaped, 117 who only smoked, and 114 who did neither. Participants used their devices and took a treadmill stress test about 90 minutes later. Participants who vaped consistently performed worse than controls on four treadmill exercise parameters that predict adverse cardiovascular outcomes, and had intermediate values compared to people who smoked. While the researchers cautioned that this observational study cannot provide proof of causal effects of vaping, they concluded the results are concerning.
- Hughey CM, Piasecki TM, Korcarz CE, Hansen KM, Ott NR, Tattersall MC, Fiore MC, Baker TB, Stein JH. Differences in Treadmill Exercise Stress Testing Parameters Among Electronic Cigarette Vapers, Combustible Cigarette Smokers, and Controls: The CLUES Study.
The studies related to CLUES were funded by a NIH award to UW-CTRI investigators Dr. James Stein and Dr. Tim Baker.
Dr. Adrienne Johnson won the Junior Faculty Award for Translational Research at the DOM Research Day. She presented her poster, “Motivating Change in Older Adults: Motivational Cigarette Smoking Cessation Message Testing.” She surveyed 820 adults (ages 50-80) online. The participants were smokers without dementia. They evaluated three messages, including a message pertaining to fear of dementia, one that fostered hope for quitting smoking, and a control ad for water. Johnson measured how these three messages affected their motivation and intention to quit smoking. The fear-based message highlighted that smoking increases the risk of developing dementia, and motivated quitting more than the control message, while the hope message did not differ from the control message in motivational impact. “Future work should examine the feasibility, acceptability, and behavioral impact of this type of motivational message in healthcare settings,” Johnson said.
- Johnson AL, Kaye J. Motivating Change in Older Adults: Motivational Cigarette Smoking Cessation Message Testing.
Dr. Megan Piper presented her poster, “The Real-world Impact of Three Alternate Nicotine-delivery Products On Combustible Cigarette Use.” It was based on the Options Study, where all study participants were smokers who didn’t want to quit, but were willing to switch from their cigarettes to something new for a week. The four weeks of the study had different goals:
- Week 1: Try out the study product they were randomly assigned to use: Juul e-cigarettes, VLN cigarettes or no alternative product. They could smoke their own cigarettes as usual.
- Week 2 (Switch Week): Don’t smoke their own cigarettes but use a patch (active or placebo) and their assigned study product.
- Week 3: Smoke their own cigarettes and use their study product as much as they want.
- Week 4 (Switch Week): Don’t smoke their own cigarettes but use a patch (if they had an active patch with nicotine in Week 2 they now had a placebo patch with no nicotine or vice versa) and their assigned study product.
She found that e-cigarettes and VLNCs appeared similar in their ability to substitute for participants’ usual brand cigarettes. Also, active nicotine patches didn’t help participants refrain from smoking their usual brand. “These findings illustrate the importance of behavioral factors, in addition to nicotine dependence, in sustaining smoking behavior and the need to address these individual factors as part of smoking cessation treatment,” Piper said.
- Piper ME, Schlam TR, Kobinsky KH, Donny EC, Jorenby DE. The Real-world Impact of Three Alternate Nicotine-delivery Products on Combustible Cigarette Use.