Toxicological Effects of Tobacco Compounds on the Expression of Genes Involved in Actinic Cheilitis.
Actinic cheilitis is the name given to inflammation of the lips, having great clinical importance because it is a potentially malignant disease that affects the lower lip. Patients are most often elderly adults, with males being affected more often than females.
Clinical signs of Actinic cheilitis are subtle but can cause discomfort and inconvenience and the diagnosis preceding the injury, important to reduce the risk of developing cancer.
Among the carcinogens that promote oral cancer use tobacco products stands out as one of the main etiological factors involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. However, several other risk factors cannot be disregarded, such as a systemic condition of the individual, sun exposure, age, heredity, etc.
There are more than 4,800 compounds present in the particulate and vapor phases
of cigarette smoke and several of these compounds are considered
to represent a human health risk. The vast majority belong to three
groups: 1) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 2) aromatic amines
and 3) nitrosamine, the latter related to nicotine.
In smokers, a form in which the tobacco triggers lesions, such as actinic cheilitis,
with the interaction of nicotine and its receptor on epithelial cells.
However, the molecular mechanisms associated with actinic cheilitis and cigarette
smoking remains unknown.
The leader gene approach was described previously by Feltes et al.
To determine a primary set of genes associated with actinic cheilitis, a search considering only human genes was performed on the following databases: PubMed, Gene-Bank, Geneatlas, and Genecards.
Dent Open J. 2017; 5(1): 11-18. doi: 10.17140/DOJ-5-136
