N-acetyltransferase 1 polymorphism increases cotinine levels in Caucasian children exposed to secondhand smoke: the CCAAPS birth cohort.

Cotinine is a proxy for secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure. Genetic variation along nicotine and cotinine metabolic pathways may alter the internal cotinine dose, leading to misinterpretations of exposure-health outcome associations. Caucasian children with available SHS exposure and hair cotinine data were genotyped for metabolism-related genes. SHS-exposed children had 2.4-fold higher hair cotinine (0.14±0.22 ng mg(-1)) than unexposed children (0.06±0.05 ng mg(-1), P<0.001). SHS-exposed children carrying the NAT1 minor allele had twofold higher hair cotinine (0.18 ng mg(-1) for heterozygotes and 0.17 ng mg(-1) for homozygotes) compared with major allele homozygotes (0.09 ng mg(-1), P=0.0009), even after adjustment for SHS dose. These findings support that NAT1 has a role in the metabolic pathway of nicotine/cotinine and/or their metabolites. The increased cotinine levels observed for those carrying the minor allele may lead to SHS exposure misclassification in studies utilizing cotinine as a biomarker. Additional studies are required to identify functional single-nucleotide polymorphism(s) (SNP(s)) in NAT1 and elucidate the biological consequences of the mutation(s).

Genetic approach identifies distinct asthma pathways in overweight vs normal weight children.

The pathogenesis of asthma in the context of excess body weight may be distinct from asthma that develops in normal weight children. The study's objective was to explore the biology of asthma in the context of obesity and normal weight status using genetic methodologies. Associations between asthma and SNPs in 49 genes were assessed, as well as, interactions between SNPs and overweight status in child participants of the Greater Cincinnati Pediatric Clinic Repository. Asthma was significantly associated with weight (OR = 1.38; P = 0.037). The number of genes and the magnitude of their associations with asthma were notably greater when considering overweight children alone vs normal weight and overweight children together. When considering weight, distinct sets of asthma-associated genes were observed, many times with opposing effects. We demonstrated that the underlying heterogeneity of asthma is likely due in part to distinct pathogenetic pathways that depend on preceding/comorbid overweight and/or allergy. It is therefore important to consider both obesity and asthma when conducting studies of asthma.