Researchers are now trying to determine how drinking alcohol and vaping affects the blood-brain barrier, which protects our brains. They are doing this with money from the NIH. When this barrier is compromised, brain injury and cognitive deterioration may result.
The goal is to develop possible indicators for clinical application and to determine the precise damage produced by this combination.
Main Details:
The blood-brain barrier can be damaged and cerebral inflammation can result from using e-cigarettes alone.
Cognitive deterioration and mitochondrial malfunction may result from using e-cigarettes and alcohol combined.
The goal of the study is to find biomarkers that can indicate blood-brain barrier damage in drug users.
E-cigarettes are popular among a wide range of users, particularly teenagers, due to their numerous flavours and widely held beliefs about their safety. But using e-cigarettes is associated with more alcohol intake in addition to using other drugs and substances. It is nearly impossible to predict how such combinations may affect one’s health.
Researchers at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine are now hoping to shed light on the effects of combined alcohol and e-cigarette use on the blood brain barrier, the cell layer that controls the passage of substances into the sensitive tissues of the central nervous system. This research is made possible by new funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Clinical research on human subjects indicates that e-cigarettes alone may have a deleterious effect on brain microvessels and raise blood levels of inflammatory substances.
We intend to investigate and get a deeper understanding of the mechanisms and contributing factors to these events, which may have detrimental impacts on brain function, with the support of our new NIAAA funding.
Normally, the blood brain barrier is very selective, letting certain molecules pass through while blocking the passage of many others into the central nervous system. That protective role, however, fails when it is damaged or compromised.
Immune cells, inflammatory proteins, and poisons are examples of molecules that are normally kept out. As they break the barrier and enter the brain, they feed inflammatory processes that harm neurons, impair neurological function, and cause cognitive decline.
According to earlier research, using e-cigarettes by themselves can create inflammation in the brain and interfere with the blood-brain barrier’s normal function. Exposure of animals to e-cigarette vapours has been associated with a reduction in neuronal function-promoting factors, an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and an accumulation of inflammatory chemicals in endothelial cells.
Elevations of these elements, particularly reactive oxygen species (ROS), are recognised to impair the efficiency of mitochondria, the microscopic energy producers within cells that power almost every biological process.
Dr. Persidsky and associates are now able to specifically research the novel mechanism of alcohol and e-cigarette-induced harm as well as the effect of increased proinflammatory molecule levels, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), on the mitochondrial function of blood brain barrier endothelial cells. This is made possible by the new grant.
Both in vitro systems and animal models that combine the effects of long-term alcohol consumption with e-cigarette inhalation will be used in their investigations. According to preliminary evidence gathered from these models, exposure to both alcohol and e-cigarettes together increases mitochondrial dysfunction and causes cognitive decline.
Should you be encountering any of the problems discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact us, and we will try to assist you in any way we can.