Purpose: The study evaluated Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans ATCC 49919 as a biological system for converting nicotine and tobacco extracts into 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine.
Approach: Researchers tested metabolic engineering, chemical inhibition and different cell concentrations to improve accumulation of the desired intermediate.
Results: The ndhL-overexpressing strain reached concentrations of up to 1.78 g/L during growth. Bioreactor experiments showed conversion of both pure nicotine and tobacco-derived extracts.
Context: The research concerns biotechnology and nicotine-waste valorisation rather than the health effects of nicotine consumption.
Purpose: Researchers used molecular dynamics simulations to examine how nicotine and its major metabolite cotinine interact with DPPC phospholipid bilayers.
Findings: Both compounds accumulated at the water-lipid interface. Nicotine showed substantially greater membrane permeability and repeatedly crossed the bilayer, while cotinine remained mainly near the interface.
Membrane effects: Both molecules reduced lipid-chain order, altered membrane electrostatic properties and produced local membrane thinning in the simulation.
Limitation: This was a molecular modelling study and did not directly measure biological or health outcomes in people.
Background: The paper notes that many cancer patients have a history of smoking and some continue smoking after diagnosis, while cessation treatment is not always offered.
Programme: An evidence-based tobacco treatment programme was expanded across an NCI comprehensive cancer centre using the RE-AIM framework. Changes included standard electronic medical-record workflows, a tobacco registry and additional certified tobacco specialists.
Results: Programme optimisation was associated with an approximately ten-fold increase in patients receiving tobacco cessation services and a reported 31% seven-day point-prevalence cessation rate.
Interpretation: This is a programme implementation and evaluation case study rather than a randomized trial of treatment effectiveness.
Methods: Researchers conducted a nested case-control study among people with HIV who smoked cigarettes. The analysis included 135 participants with myocardial infarction and 252 matched controls.
Results: The odds of having a high nicotine metabolite ratio were approximately 1.4 times greater among myocardial-infarction cases, but the confidence interval included no association and the result was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The study found only a small and statistically uncertain association. The authors recommend further research before nicotine metabolism can be considered a useful marker of myocardial-infarction risk.
Purpose: The study evaluated the short-term impact of UP2UTeacher, a single-session school intervention addressing different tobacco and nicotine products.
Methods: High school students completed surveys immediately before and after the intervention. The PubMed abstract reports a sample of 242 students.
Results: Almost half of students who were willing to use tobacco or nicotine products and 28.2% of current users became non-willing after the session. Perceptions of harm and addictiveness increased for multiple products.
Limitation: This was a preliminary evaluation of immediate pre-post changes and does not establish long-term behavioural effects.
Methods: Researchers used electronic health records from multiple institutions and compared adult burn patients with and without tobacco-free nicotine dependence. Propensity-score matching produced two groups of 20,906 patients each.
Results: Tobacco-free nicotine dependence was associated with higher 90-day rates of sepsis, wound dehiscence, infection, antimicrobial prescriptions, emergency department visits and mortality. One-year mortality and newly diagnosed opioid use disorder were also higher.
Interpretation: The findings show an association in retrospective health-record data. They do not establish that nicotine alone caused every observed complication.
Methods: Researchers analysed data from 17,732 adults reporting past-30-day cannabis use in the 2022-2023 US National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Patterns identified: Four groups were identified: mainly smoking (48.2%), smoking and vaping (20.5%), mainly edibles (16.9%) and multiple-method use (14.4%).
Findings: Younger adults were more likely to be in smoking-and-vaping or multiple-method groups. Cannabis use disorder was more common in these groups than in the mainly smoking group and lower in the mainly edibles group.
Conclusion: The authors suggest considering route of cannabis use when developing prevention and harm-reduction interventions.
Methods: Researchers used online focus groups, interviews and an online rating survey. The final survey included 286 young adults.
Findings: Participants responded positively to messages containing specific or less familiar health information, including toxic constituents and physical harms. Messages about heart and lung disease and cancer received high perceived-effectiveness scores.
Comparative messaging: Messages comparing cigarettes and vaping did not consistently outperform standard messages and could sometimes be interpreted as suggesting that vaping is safe.
Conclusion: The authors recommend clear and carefully framed messages, with attention to possible unintended effects of comparative-risk communication.