• Vittorio Picchio, Giulio Ferrero, Claudia Cozzolino, Barbara Pardini, Erica Floris, Sonia Tarallo, Xhulio Dhori, Cristina Nocella, Lorenzo Loffredo, Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai, Roberto Carnevale, Giacomo Frati, Isotta Chimenti, and Francesca Pagano.
• Department of Medical Surgical Sciences and Biotechnologies, Sapienza University of Rome, Latina, Italy.
• Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 2024 Apr 1; 54 (4): e14140e14140.

BackgroundTraditional combustion cigarette (TCC) smoking is an established risk factor for several types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) represent key molecules mediating pathogenetic mechanisms, and potential biomarkers for personalized risk assessment. TCC smoking globally changes the profile of circulating miRNAs. The use of heat-not-burn cigarettes (HNBCs) as alternative smoking devices is rising exponentially worldwide, and the circulating miRNA profile of chronic HNBC smokers is unknown. We aimed at defining the circulating miRNA profile of chronic exclusive HNBC smokers, and identifying potentially pathogenetic signatures.MethodsSerum samples were obtained from 60 healthy young subjects, stratified in chronic HNBC smokers, TCC smokers and nonsmokers (20 subjects each). Three pooled samples per group were used for small RNA sequencing, and the fourth subgroup constituted the validation set.ResultsDifferential expression analysis revealed 108 differentially expressed miRNAs; 72 exclusively in TCC, 10 exclusively in HNBC and 26 in both smoker groups. KEGG pathway analysis on target genes of the commonly modulated miRNAs returned cancer and cardiovascular disease associated pathways. Stringent abundance and fold-change criteria nailed down our functional bioinformatic analyses to a network where miR-25-3p and miR-221-3p are main hubs.ConclusionOur results define for the first time the miRNA profile in the serum of exclusive chronic HNBC smokers and suggest a significant impact of HNBCs on circulating miRNAs.© 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Clinical Investigation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.

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