Quantification of the smoking-associated cancer risk with rate advancement periods: meta-analysis of individual participant data from cohorts of the CHANCES consortium

Smoking is the most important individual risk factor for many cancer sites but its association with breast and prostate cancer is not entirely clear. Rate advancement periods (RAPs) may enhance communication of smoking related risk to the general population. Thus, we estimated RAPs for the association of smoking exposure (smoking status, time since smoking cessation, smoking intensity, and duration) with total and site-specific (lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, gastric, head and neck, and pancreatic) cancer incidence and mortality.This is a meta-analysis of 19 population-based prospective cohort studies with individual participant data for 897,021 European and American adults. For each cohort we calculated hazard ratios (HRs) for the association of smoking exposure with cancer outcomes using Cox regression adjusted for a common set of the most important potential confounding variables. RAPs (in years) were calculated as the ratio of the logarithms of the HRs for a given smoking exposure variable and age. Meta-analyses were employed to summarize cohort-specific HRs and RAPs.Overall, 140,205 subjects had a first incident cancer, and 53,164 died from cancer, during an average follow-up of 12 years. Current smoking advanced the overall risk of developing and dying from cancer by eight and ten years, respectively, compared with never smokers. The greatest advancements in cancer risk and mortality were seen for lung cancer and the least for breast cancer. Smoking cessation was statistically significantly associated with delays in the risk of cancer development and mortality compared with continued smoking.This investigation shows that smoking, even among older adults, considerably advances, and cessation delays, the risk of developing and dying from cancer. These findings may be helpful in more effectively communicating the harmful effects of smoking and the beneficial effect of smoking cessation

Characterisation of the pro-inflammatory cytokine signature in severe COVID-19

Clinical outcomes from infection with SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, are remarkably variable ranging from asymptomatic infection to severe pneumonia and death. One of the key drivers of this variability is differing trajectories in the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Many studies have noted markedly elevated cytokine levels in severe COVID-19, although results vary by cohort, cytokine studied and sensitivity of assay used. We assessed the immune response in acute COVID-19 by measuring 20 inflammatory markers in 118 unvaccinated patients with acute COVID-19 (median age: 70, IQR: 58-79 years; 48.3% female) recruited during the first year of the pandemic and 44 SARS-CoV-2 naïve healthy controls. Acute COVID-19 was associated with marked elevations in nearly all pro-inflammatory markers, whilst eleven markers (namely IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IL-18, IL-23, IL-33, TNF-α, IP-10, G-CSF and YKL-40) were associated with disease severity. We observed significant correlations between nearly all markers elevated in those infected with SARS-CoV-2 consistent with widespread immune dysregulation. Principal component analysis highlighted a pro-inflammatory cytokine signature (with strongest contributions from IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, IL-33, G-CSF, TNF-α and IP-10) which was independently associated with severe COVID-19 (aOR: 1.40, 1.11-1.76, p=0.005), invasive mechanical ventilation (aOR: 1.61, 1.19-2.20, p=0.001) and mortality (aOR 1.57, 1.06-2.32, p = 0.02). Our findings demonstrate elevated cytokines and widespread immune dysregulation in severe COVID-19, adding further evidence for the role of a pro-inflammatory cytokine signature in severe and critical COVID-19

Hazardous alcohol consumption is associated with increased levels of B-type natriuretic peptide: evidence from two population-based studies.

Russia has very high mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD), with evidence that heavy drinking may play a role. To throw further light on this association we have studied the association of alcohol with predictors of CVD risk including B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP). Levels of BNP increase primarily in response to abnormal cardiac chamber wall stretch which can occur both as a result of atherosclerosis as well as due to other types of damage to the myocardium. No previous population-based studies have investigated the association with alcohol. We analysed cross-sectional data on drinking behaviour in 993 men aged 25-60 years from the Izhevsk Family Study 2 (IFS2), conducted in the Russian city of Izhevsk in 2008-2009. Relative to non-drinkers, men who drank hazardously had an odds ratio (OR) of being in the top 20 % of the BNP distribution of 4.66 (95 % CI 2.13, 10.19) adjusted for age, obesity, waist-hip ratio, and smoking. Further adjustment for class of hypertension resulted in only slight attenuation of the effect, suggesting that this effect was not secondary to the influence of alcohol on blood pressure. In contrast hazardous drinking was associated with markedly raised ApoA1 and HDL cholesterol levels, but had little impact on levels of ApoB and LDL cholesterol. Similar but less pronounced associations were found in the Belfast (UK) component of the PRIME study conducted in 1991. These findings suggest that the association of heavy drinking with increased risk of cardiovascular disease may be partly due to alcohol-induced non-atherosclerotic damage to the myocardium

Unravelling the role of protein kinase CK2 in metal toxicity using gene deletion mutants

Metal ions, biologically essential or toxic, are present in the surrounding environment of living organisms. Understanding their uptake, homeostasis or detoxification is critical in cell biology and human health. In this study, we investigated the role of protein kinase CK2 in metal toxicity using gene deletion strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae against a panel of six metal ions. The deletion of CKA2, the yeast orthologue of mammalian CK2a0 , leads to a pronounced resistant phenotype against Zn2+ and Al3+, whilst the deletion of CKB1 or CKB2 results in tolerance to Cr6+ and As3+. The individual deletion mutants of CK2 subunits (CKA1, CKA2, CKB1 and CKB2) did not have any benefit against Co2+ and Cd2+. The metal ion content in the treated cells was then measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Two contrasting findings were obtained for the CKA2 deletion mutant (cka2D) against Al3+ or Zn2+. Upon exposure to Al3+, cka2D had markedly lower Al3+ content than the wild type and other CK2 mutants, congruous to the resistant phenotype of cka2D against Al3+, indicating that CKA2 is responsible for Al3+ uptake. Upon zinc exposure the same mutant showed similar Zn2+ content to the wild type and cka1D. Strikingly, the selective inhibitor of CK2 TBB (4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1H-benzotriazole) abolished the resistant phenotype of cka2D against Zn2+. Hence, the CK2 subunit CKA1 plays a key role in Zn2+ sequestration of the cell. Given that both zinc and CK2 are implicated in cancer development, the findings herein are of significance to cancer research and anticancer drug development

Role of atmospheric oxidation in recent methane growth

The growth in global methane (CH4) concentration, which had been ongoing since the industrial revolution, stalled around the year 2000 before resuming globally in 2007. We evaluate the role of the hydroxyl radical (OH), the major CH4 sink, in the recent CH4 growth. We also examine the influence of systematic uncertainties in OH concentrations on CH4 emissions inferred from atmospheric observations. We use observations of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (CH3CCl3), which is lost primarily through reaction with OH, to estimate OH levels as well as CH3CC3 emissions, which have uncertainty that previously limited the accuracy of OH estimates. We find a 64-70% probability that a decline in OH has contributed to the post-2007 methane rise. Our median solution suggests that CH4 emissions increased relatively steadily during the late 1990s and early 2000s, after which growth was more modest. This solution obviates the need for a sudden statistically significant change in total CH4 emissions around the year 2007 to explain the atmospheric observations and can explain some of the decline in the atmospheric 13CH4/12CH4 ratio and the recent growth in C2H6 Our approach indicates that significant OH-related uncertainties in the CH4 budget remain, and we find that it is not possible to implicate, with a high degree of confidence, rapid global CH4 emissions changes as the primary driver of recent trends when our inferred OH trends and these uncertainties are considered