Smoking, blood DNA methylation sites and lung cancer risk

Smoking-Induced DNA Hydroxymethylation Signature Is Less Pronounced than True DNA Methylation: The Population-Based KORA Fit Cohort

“…Although tobacco smoking is widely recognized as a harmful behaviour with significant impacts on human health, smoking or exposure to smoke continues to be prevalent worldwide. Tobacco smoking is a risk factor for and is a frequent cause of many adverse health consequences, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [ 1 ], cardiovascular diseases [ 2 ], asthma [ 3 ] and various forms of cancer, in particular lung cancer [ 4 , 5 ]. Moreover, smoking status appears to contribute to a poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients [ 6 ].…”

“…Epigenetic mechanisms, specifically alterations in DNA methylation, have been suggested to moderate the impact of tobacco smoking, leading to changes in transcriptional activity and contributing to smoking-related diseases [ 9 ]. With the update of DNA methylation arrays, the impact of smoking on DNA 5-methylcytosine (5mC) methylation has been thoroughly investigated in blood cells from adults, revealing significant disparities between smokers and non-smokers [ 10 , 11 ], which can be even more conspicuous in specific tissues like vascular endothelial cells [ 12 ], and vulnerable groups like cancer patients [ 4 ]. The impact of tobacco smoking on DNA methylation is also prominent in the blood of newborns whose mothers smoked during pregnancy [ 13 ].…”