The Reversion of the Epigenetic Signature of Coronary Heart Disease in Response to Smoking Cessation.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. However, current diagnostic tools for CHD, such as coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), are poorly suited for monitoring treatment response. Recently, we have introduced an artificial-intelligence-guided integrated genetic-epigenetic test for CHD whose core consists of six assays that determine methylation in pathways known to moderate the pathogenesis of CHD.

Additive and Interactive Genetically Contextual Effects of HbA1c on cg19693031 Methylation in Type 2 Diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) has a complex genetic and environmental architecture that underlies its development and clinical presentation. Despite the identification of well over a hundred genetic variants and CpG sites that associate with T2D, a robust biosignature that could be used to prevent or forestall clinical disease has not been developed. Based on the premise that underlying genetic variation influences DNA methylation (DNAm) independently of or in combination with environmental exposures, we assessed the ability of local and distal gene x methylation (GxMeth) interactive effects to improve cg19693031 models for predicting T2D status in an African American cohort.

Alcohol Use Intensity Decreases in Response to Successful Smoking Cessation Therapy.

Smokers frequently drink heavily. However, the effectiveness of smoking cessation therapy for those with comorbid alcohol abuse is unclear, and the content of smoking cessation programs often does not address comorbid alcohol consumption. In order to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between changes in rate of smoking to the change in intensity of alcohol consumption, and the necessity for alcohol-specific programming for dual users, we quantified cigarette and alcohol consumption in 39 subjects undergoing a 3-month contingency management smoking cessation program using recently developed DNA methylation tools.

Refinement of cg05575921 demethylation response in nascent smoking.

The initiation of adolescent smoking is difficult to detect using carbon monoxide or cotinine assays. Previously, we and others have shown that the methylation of cg05575921 is an accurate predictor of adult smoking status. But the dose and time dependency of the demethylation response to smoking initiation in adolescents is not yet well understood.

Saliva DNA Methylation Detects Nascent Smoking in Adolescents.

Early identification of smoking, essential for the successful implementation of interventions, arrests the escalation of smoking and smoking-associated risk behaviors in adolescents. However, because nascent smoking is typically episodic and infrequent, enzyme-linked immunoassay reagent-based approaches that detect cotinine, a key nicotine metabolite, are not effective in identifying adolescents in the earliest stages of smoking. Epigenetic methods may offer an alternative approach for detecting early-stage smokers.