COVID-19 NEWS
COVID
Chemistry
Could vaping lead to complications
of COVID-19?
The SARS-CoV-2 virus infects the human body
by binding to a protein called angiotensinconverting
enzyme 2, or ACE2 (1), which regulates
inflammation and vasoconstriction in the lungs
and other tissues. There’s increasing evidence that
cigarette smoking increases the gene expression
of ACE2, which may in turn increase viral load. To
date, however, it’s not known whether vaping might
produce a similar effect. Equipped with a newly
acquired robot, one of the nation’s preeminent
chemical weapons preparedness labs is
collaborating with a top virology lab to investigate.
In liquid form, the basic ingredients of a run-of-the-mill vape pen
are pretty innocuous. Two of them are common food additives:
propylene glycol, an emulsifier and anti-caking agent, and
glycerine, a moisture-retaining compound also found in cosmetics
and wound salves. The third is nicotine.
“So that’s what’s going into the vape,” says pediatric
pulmonologist Carl White, MD. “But when it comes out it’s in
small hot particles, so small they can penetrate very deep into
the lungs. The chemical composition of what’s being delivered
in the aerosol is quite different.”
That composition includes formaldehyde; acetaldehyde, a
chemical formed in the liver when it’s breaking down alcohol; and
acrolein, an aldehyde that occurs in closed fires, especially where
plastic is burning — like a car fire. And the effects on the body of
that chemical mix, short- or long-term, still aren’t well understood.
Dr. White is looking to understand them better, and he comes
from a unique vantage. Along with his mentee and partner
Livia Veress, MD, another pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s
Hospital Colorado, he heads up one of the nation’s preeminent
labs for the translational study of chemical inhalants. Much of
their work, in fact, is funded through a national counter-terrorism
program that supports the development of treatments for
chemical weapons attacks.
4 | CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO