The National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has awarded seven research grants for studies that evaluate the effects of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) aerosol vapors on the oral cavity.
The grants, which total more than $2 million, will evaluate the safety of the vapors. The research is especially important because as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tries to regulate e-cigarettes, they will require safety data on the aerosol mixtures, according to the NIDCR.
"When a liquid nicotine solution is vaporized by an e-cigarette, multiple constituents may be found in the aerosols, but we don't yet know the biological and physiological impact of these aerosols on oral tissue or its microbiome," stated Sundar Venkatachalam, PhD, who is the program official for e-cigarette research and director of NIDCR's Oral and Salivary Cancer Biology Program, in a press release. "The projects being funded will provide much needed information on the effects of e-cigarette chemicals on oral health."
The NIDCR will fund the following projects for two to four years, pending progress and available funds:
- Deposition profile and toxicology of e-cigarettes in the oral epithelium
Principal investigator: Steven Belinsky, Lovelace Biomedical and Environmental Research - E-cigarette use as a modifier of oral host defense and microbiome in young adults
Principal investigators: Shyam Biswal, Claire Fraser, Mary Ann Ye Jabra-Rizk, Johns Hopkins University - Genetic, epigenetic, and transcriptomic effects of e-cig aerosol on oral epithelium
Principal investigator: Ahmad Besaratinia, University of Southern California - Modulation of oral microenvironment by E-cigarette aerosol mixtures
Principal investigators: Deepak Saxena and Xin Li, New York University - Biology of the oral epithelium of e-cigarette smokers
Principal investigators: Ronald Crystal and Jason Mezy, Weill Medical College of Cornell University - Effect of e-cigarettes on oral tissues in health and disease
Principal investigators: Tara Aghaloo and Sotirios Tetradis, University of California, Los Angeles - Perturbation of craniofacial morphogenesis, healing, and regeneration by e-cigarette aerosol mixtures
Principal investigators: Rene Olivares-Navarrete and Amanda Dickinson, Virginia Commonwealth University
