Vaping could put ‘healthy’ people at higher risk of ‘severe Covid’

Smoking and vaping: NHS shows difference between the two

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For decades people have known the health risks of smoking tobacco. Over the years the habit has been linked to cancer, heart disease, strokes and many other dangerous conditions. So when e-cigarettes were first introduced it was hoped these would be a healthier alternative.

However, a new study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), found that both regular cigarettes and e-cigarettes can increase healthy young people’s risk of developing severe Covid illness.

The study, published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine, discovered they both may predispose people to increased inflammation and future development of severe COVID-19 – although vapers could be more at risk of inflammatory lung disorders.

Both types of cigarettes also increase the chance of suffering lingering cardiovascular complications that can occur after an initial illness from the virus, the study showed.

In a UCLA release, Doctor Theodoros Kelesidis, the study’s lead author, explained: “The key message is that smoking is the worst, but vaping is not innocent.

“This has been shown for many lung diseases but not for Covid.

“It was a quite interesting and novel finding that vaping changed the levels of key proteins that the virus uses to replicate.”

As part of the study, investigators examined plasma collected before the pandemic from 45 non-smokers, 30 electronic cigarette users, and 29 tobacco cigarette smokers.

They then tested the plasma samples to measure levels of since-identified proteins that SARS-CoV-2, the virus at the heart of the pandemic, needs in order to replicate.

These proteins are ACE2, furin, Ang II, Ang 1–7, IL-6R, sCD163, L-selectin.

And the three latter proteins are collectively regulated in cells by a protein known as ADAM17.

The team found that plasma from healthy young people who smoke tobacco or vape had increased levels of furin, sCD163, and L-selectin compared to non-smokers.

This suggests that there may be increased activity of the proteins furin and ADAM17 in the immune cells as well as surface cells, such as those lining the lungs, in healthy young smokers and vapers.x

“E-cigarette vapers may be at higher risk than non-smokers of developing infections and inflammatory disorders of the lungs,” Dr Kelesidis added.

“Electronic cigarettes are not harmless and should be used for only the shortest time possible in smoking cessation, and not at all by non-smokers.”

However, there were some limitations to the trial including the small size of the study, which suggests the need for research with a larger sample size.

Scientists also believe the reliance on testing blood plasma rather than tissue samples such as lung cells warrants deeper research.

These findings come not long after the publication of a separate study on vaping in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

This paper, from January 2023, found that e-cigarette users were more vulnerable to lung inflammation than tobacco smokers.

It also said that vaping can “cause pulmonary inflammation and increases the risk of lung disease”.

Data from the UK Government states there are currently around 3.2 million e-cigarette users in England.

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