The Relationship Between the Risk of Smoking-Related Disease, Inflammatory Response and Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms

Abstract

It is common knowledge that smoking cigarettes causes a plethora of health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and a variety of cancers, collectively called smoking-related diseases (SRDs)¹.  Systemic inflammation (SI) plays a key role in the development and progression of many SRDs, leading researchers to explore the relationship between cigarette smoking and inflammatory biomarkers^2,3,4. Notable inflammatory biomarkers include elevated levels of immune response cells in the CD8dim lymphocyte group as well as certain phenotypes of monocytes and neutrophils⁵. While the risks of smoking cigarettes are well known and studied, there is only ongoing research to refer to when assessing the likelihood of developing a SRD. The risk of developing a SRD is not based on cigarette smoking alone, which explains why only some cigarette smokers develop a SRD. Genetic predisposition appears to be a promising lead as to explaining this phenomenon. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are small variants in DNA, varying by a single nucleotide that can be used as biomarkers for disease⁶. A variety of SNPs have been identified as being associated with cigarette smoking and SRDs. Two telling SNPs associated with smoking and SI are CRP rs1800947, GZB rs8192917^5.