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Cohn AM, Cassidy R, Denlinger-Apte R, Donny E, Villanti AC, Hatsukami D, Dunn D, Wyatt R, Niznik T, Cohen-Davidyan T, Smith M, Ehlke SJ. Impact of a reduced nicotine standard on young adult appeal for menthol and non-menthol cigarettes. BMJ Open 2022; 12:e067694. [PMID: 36410805 PMCID: PMC9680144 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its intention to reduce the nicotine content in cigarettes as a strategy to promote cessation and reduce smoking-related harm. A low nicotine product standard will apply to all cigarettes on the market, including menthol cigarettes. In December 2021, the FDA approved a modified risk tobacco product application for menthol and non-menthol flavoured very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNC) from the 22nd Century Group. Notably, experimentation with menthol cigarettes is linked to smoking progression, as well as greater nicotine dependence relative to non-menthol cigarette use. If menthol VLNCs are perceived as more appealing than non-menthol VLNCs, this would indicate that some aspect of menthol may maintain smoking even in the absence of nicotine and FDA's regulatory authority to ban or restrict the sale of menthol cigarettes should apply to reduced nicotine content of cigarettes. In April 2022, the FDA announced proposed rulemaking to prohibit menthol cigarettes, however it is unclear if a menthol prohibition would apply to VLNCs. METHODS AND ANALYSIS This study will recruit 172 young adult menthol smokers (with a specific subsample of n=40 sexual and gender minority young adults) and measure appeal for smoking experimental menthol and non-menthol VLNCs, and the impact of proposed product standards on tobacco product purchasing behaviour using an Experimental Tobacco Marketplace. Appeal across product standards will be assessed in a controlled laboratory and using ecological momentary assessment. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION The protocol was approved by the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Institutional Review Board (#11865). Findings will examine the effects of a reduced nicotine standard and a menthol ban on young adult smoking and will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles and presentations at scientific conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT04340947.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy M Cohn
- Department of Pediatrics, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Rachel Cassidy
- Center for Alcohol & Addiction Studies, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Rachel Denlinger-Apte
- Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Eric Donny
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
| | - Andrea C Villanti
- Health Behavior, Society & Policy, Deparment of Health Behavior, Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies, School of Public Health, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
| | - Dorothy Hatsukami
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Delaney Dunn
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Riley Wyatt
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Taylor Niznik
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Tamar Cohen-Davidyan
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Michael Smith
- TSET Health Promotion Research Center, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Sarah J Ehlke
- Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
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Murphy SE. Biochemistry of nicotine metabolism and its relevance to lung cancer. J Biol Chem 2021; 296:100722. [PMID: 33932402 PMCID: PMC8167289 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.100722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Nicotine is the key addictive constituent of tobacco. It is not a carcinogen, but it drives smoking and the continued exposure to the many carcinogens present in tobacco. The investigation into nicotine biotransformation has been ongoing for more than 60 years. The dominant pathway of nicotine metabolism in humans is the formation of cotinine, which occurs in two steps. The first step is cytochrome P450 (P450, CYP) 2A6–catalyzed 5′-oxidation to an iminium ion, and the second step is oxidation of the iminium ion to cotinine. The half-life of nicotine is longer in individuals with low P450 2A6 activity, and smokers with low activity often decrease either the intensity of their smoking or the number of cigarettes they use compared with those with “normal” activity. The effect of P450 2A6 activity on smoking may influence one's tobacco-related disease risk. This review provides an overview of nicotine metabolism and a summary of the use of nicotine metabolite biomarkers to define smoking dose. Some more recent findings, for example, the identification of uridine 5′-diphosphoglucuronosyltransferase 2B10 as the catalyst of nicotine N-glucuronidation, are discussed. We also describe epidemiology studies that establish the contribution of nicotine metabolism and CYP2A6 genotype to lung cancer risk, particularly with respect to specific racial/ethnic groups, such as those with Japanese, African, or European ancestry. We conclude that a model of nicotine metabolism and smoking dose could be combined with other lung cancer risk variables to more accurately identify former smokers at the highest risk of lung cancer and to intervene accordingly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sharon E Murphy
- Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
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Li H, Peng Y, Lin C, Zhang X, Zhang T, Wang Y, Li Y, Wu S, Wang H, Hutchinson MR, Watkins LR, Wang X. Nicotine and its metabolite cotinine target MD2 and inhibit TLR4 signaling. Innovation (N Y) 2021; 2:100111. [PMID: 34557761 PMCID: PMC8454564 DOI: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Nicotine is the principal alkaloid of tobacco often manufactured into cigarettes and belongs to a highly addictive class of drugs. Nicotine attenuates the neuroinflammation induced by microglial activation. However, the molecular target(s) underlying anti-inflammatory action of nicotine has not been fully understood. Considering the psychoactive substances morphine, cocaine, and methamphetamine act as xenobiotic-associated molecular patterns and can be specifically sensed by the innate immune receptor Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), here we sought to delineate whether nicotine and/or its metabolite cotinine may be recognized by the innate immune system via myeloid differentiation protein 2 (MD2), an accessory protein of TLR4 that is responsible for ligand recognition. MD2-intrinsic fluorescence titrations, surface plasmon resonance, and competitive displacement binding assays with curcumin (MD2 probe) demonstrated that both nicotine and cotinine targeted the lipopolysaccharide (LPS; TLR4 agonist) binding pocket of MD2 with similar affinities. The cellular thermal shift assay indicated that nicotine binding increased, while cotinine binding decreased, MD2 stability. These biophysical binding results were further supported by in silico simulations. In keeping with targeting MD2, both nicotine and cotinine inhibited LPS-induced production of nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and blocked microglial activation. Neither a pan nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) inhibitor nor RNAi for nAChRs abolished the suppressive effect of nicotine- and cotinine-induced neuroinflammation. These data indicate that TLR4 inhibition by nicotine and cotinine at the concentrations tested in BV-2 cells is independent of classic neuronal nAChRs and validate that MD2 is a direct target of nicotine and cotinine in the inhibition of innate immunity. Nicotine and cotinine bind to MD2 in microglia cell Nicotine and cotinine inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory factors The activity of nicotine and cotinine in microglia is independent of nAChRs
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongyuan Li
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Yinghua Peng
- Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jilin 130112, China
| | - Cong Lin
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Xiaozheng Zhang
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Tianshu Zhang
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Yibo Wang
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Yuanpeng Li
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Siru Wu
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Hongshuang Wang
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China
| | - Mark R Hutchinson
- Discipline of Physiology, Adelaide Medical School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia
| | - Linda R Watkins
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Center for Neuroscience, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Xiaohui Wang
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin 130022, China.,Department of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
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