The appeal of vaping and modern tobacco products among today's youth has attracted a lot of attention and poses a threat to Society’s health.
As these products gain popularity, concerns about their potential impact on health and influence on behavioral alterations in young individuals have grown. Rigorous toxicity testing are therefore vital in safeguarding the well-being of anyone who uses vapes and other modern tobacco products.
Nowadays, testing on animals entails significant cost, time consumption, and ethical concerns. Therefore, the use of New Alternative Models (NAMs) has spread, and many efforts are currently being made to make them more reliable and cost-effective. Among them, the Zebrafish model is outlined as one of the most reliable ones, due to the many benefits it presents.
As regular tobacco and cigarettes have steadily declined over the years, the popularity of products such as vapes, e-cigarettes, and heated tobacco products are increasing. According to published estimations, the e-cigarette market alone will continue to grow and be worth $28-40 billion by 2027.
A concerning trend has emerged, showcasing the widespread incidence of vaping especially among young people, due to social and peer pressure. These minors believe that utilizing this smoking method is a lot safer than regular tobacco and that it does not entail any harmful repercussions health-wise. A recent report shows that 85% of US middle and high school pupils had used an e-cigarette in 2021. This trend is propelled by a mix of factors, including aggressive marketing tactics, appealing flavors, and the misperception of reduced harm. In addition, another influential factor is that modern tobacco maintains the peer pressure of the traditional, as vaping can be seen to be a ‘cool’ activity among underage people.
As modern tobacco products captivate the interest of youth, the current regulations come into question as there is no standard global approach. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), e-cigarettes are banned in over 30 countries, but many others sell them as approved consumer products.
Preclinical studies are one of the most relevant ways of obtaining information meant for deciphering the multifaceted effects of vaping and modern tobacco products on our health. Among them is the addictive nature of nicotine found in these products, which exerts a significant influence on adolescent brain development that can affect social and academic performance. Nicotine addiction makes it very difficult to stop the intake of tobacco product use due to the dopamine released produced in the brain.
Zebrafish is an important NAM used in preclinical studies in many industries. Findings from these toxicity studies in Zebrafish offer insights into the negative effect of e-cigarettes on the cardiovascular, respiratory systems as well as brain development.
Yet, the understanding of the harmful effects of e-cigarettes and vapes is not complete and more studies are required. Therefore, the use of appropriate New Alternative Models (NAMs) is of great interest to obtain faster, more reliable, and cost-effective resultts, in experimental models that fulfill high ethical standards in alignment with the 3Rs Principle (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement).
Within the realm of NAMs, the Zebrafish has emerged especially as a fast-developing and promising model for toxicity studies. This aquatic organism's unique biological characteristics provide an advantageous screening model for assessing the harmful effects of modern tobacco products. The zebrafish's sensitivity to toxic substances and its developmental parallels to humans highlight its relevance in this form of testing. Besides, it presents high genetic similarity with humans, presenting a homology higher than 72%, with many physiological processes being comparable; which generates similar biological responses to humans.
The benefits of the Zebrafish extend beyond its similarity to the human genome, including transparency in the larval stage allowing direct visualization of internal organs and tissues, fast reproduction rate, small size, and being therefore a time and cost-effective model. In addition, they encompass a commitment to ethical research practices and the responsible pursuit of scientific progress.
For this purpose, several toxicity and safety assays can be done in zebrafish embryos and larvae. Starting from acute toxicity and teratogenicity assays to cardiotoxicity and vasculogenesis, inflammation, neurotoxicity, neurodevelopmental toxicity, and other behavior alteration assays (even how can affect learning and memory or sleeping). At Biobide all those assays have been set up and validated for assessing the safety of this kind of innovative products, not only with individual chemicals, but also with mixtures forum in those new tobacco products.
The repercussions of modern tobacco consumption among the population, especially young people, resonate far beyond the individual, casting a shadow over their mental health and well-being. Several studies demonstrate the detrimental effects that e-cigarettes and vapes have on a person’s health, especially in the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. Also, as they usually still have nicotine present, addictive effects that distress mental health remain.
Nevertheless, further investigations are needed to understand the risks and harmful effects of these smoking devices. Preclinical studies serve as a way of understanding their toxic still unknown effects, providing a path toward evidence-based policy implications and interventions. In this sense, NAMs are helping in depicting the toxic effects of the components found in those devices in a faster, more reliable, and cost-effective manner and safeguarding the ethical use of animals for research purposes, along with the 3Rs Principle. Thus, the Zebrafish model is one of the most promising NAMs due to the many benefits it presents as a reliable and accurate model to predict their toxic effects.
The urgency of curbing youth tobacco uses calls for a comprehensive approach, one that amalgamates scientific research, public health interventions, and initiatives, together with strict regulatory measures.
Collaboration remains paramount in this mission and requires an alliance between researchers, policymakers, and health organizations. All together, these bodies can navigate the implications of the use of vapes and modern tobacco products on adolescents and safeguard their future.
Through meticulous collaboration, and a commitment to innovation, we can forge a future that minimizes the impact of these products on the well-being of today's youth and highlights the dangers of their risk-taking behavior.