Took a look at the study you provided. Massive red flag at first *even without vetting sources of funding and history of the researchers at hand responsible for the publishing: "Furthermore, the e-cigarette users showed a greater suppression of genes common with those changed in cigarette smokers."
It doesn't list the methodology of how these people were vaping, what they were vaping, etc.., only that they were taking 200 +or- 178 puffs per day for 3-4 weeks? Sounds odd to me the margin of difference can vary so much.
Next: "Differential expression was determined between groups using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) controlling for age, race, sex, and body mass index", okay, they claim this portion with respect to RNA analysis using "nCounter Human Immunology v2 Expression", I couldn't find details on how this method really worked, seems proprietary on some level. Regardless, using nasal biopsies seems odd in a cross sectional study where baseline was never established.
I could get lost in their methodology and start repeating a ton of their finding numbers. I just don't get what their trying to say in totality aside from "gene expression tho". I mean I understand the gist, but as to what sort of impact this has if this study is to be taken seriously; I am at a loss for.
But the MOST pressing thing, for a person who cares about his health and especially immune system, the MAIN factor in this regard is diet. What you eat will have a massive impact (unlike this nasal cavity nonsense of sorts, with no basline measurements). If you're worried about your immune system, look into converting your entire diet into a plant-based wholefoods diet. Dropping hormone cocktails like the milk of another species will help massively with the immune system disturbance as well as incompatible protein ingestion that occurs with animal meat especially.
If this study wanted to prove something with immunology with respect to vaping, it wouldn't have been a few weeks spanning study. It should have been a year long ordeal until each person came in contact with similar influenza yearly strain for instance, and then measured recovery times (ON TOP of weekly measurements from baseline of anti-body pathway observations, not simply gene expressions that is as of yet an evolving and new science).
The fact that one would assume two predominant chemicals in vaping liquid can contribute to a weaker immune system is ridiculous when compared to the (STILL AS OF YET TO BE REVEALED) full formula of artificial additives in cigarettes with thousands of other unknown compounds is ridiculous. The wreck they cause to your immune system in totality (if not for dry dust particulate in your lungs alone) is far worse than two vaporized substances.
