Alex Carll
University of Louisville, KY·Pharmacology
E-cigarettes come in thousands of flavors and often contain cooling additives that make the vapor feel smoother, which especially appeals to young people. These ingredients are generally considered safe to eat.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Physiology
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
e-cigarettes
electronic cigarettes
vaping
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2031
What they work on
- Identify how inhaling flavored, nicotine-containing e-cigarette aerosols acutely changes the heart's electrical activity in mice, including QT prolongation, heart rate and arrhythmias, measured by electrocardiogram.
- Test the direct effects of individual e-cigarette flavorants on heart electrical function, contractility and action potential duration in heart cells and isolated heart tissue.
- Determine how short- and long-term flavorant aerosol exposure changes heart electrical properties, structure and function in mice, to find which flavor chemicals promote arrhythmias.
- Test how the coolants menthol, WS-3 and WS-23 change nicotine and aldehyde exposure, breathing reflexes, autonomic tone and arrhythmia risk, using continuous ECG, blood pressure and pleural pressure telemetry in mice.
- Compare adolescent and adult mice of both sexes for sensitivity to coolant-containing e-cigarette aerosols, varying coolant dose and device power, and test whether heart effects persist after exposure ends.
More about the research
But no one knows what they do to the heart once they are heated and inhaled, especially together with nicotine. Case reports of sudden cardiac arrest in young, otherwise healthy e-cigarette users make this question urgent. This research tests how specific e-cigarette ingredients affect heart rhythm, breathing and the autonomic nervous system, the automatic system that controls heart rate and blood pressure. It combines inhalation studies in mice with tests in heart cells and isolated heart tissue.
Why it matters
E-cigarette use is common among adolescents and young adults, yet the heart effects of their flavorings and cooling agents are poorly understood. By identifying which flavor chemicals and coolants promote irregular heartbeats, alter nervous control of the heart, or raise nicotine and aldehyde exposure, this work could guide regulators in deciding which e-liquid ingredients to restrict. It could also inform public health efforts to lower heart risks, especially for young users.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nii Addy
Yale University, CT·Pharmacology
Test whether sweeteners, synthetic cooling agents and propylene glycol/glycerol solvents change oral and airway sensory responses to tobacco-derived and synthetic nicotine stereoisomers, using taste reactivity and respiratory exposure assays in adolescent and adult rodents.
Elias Klemperer
University of Vermont, VT·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether very low nicotine content cigarettes reduce cigarettes smoked per day and cigarette dependence among adult dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, in a 12-week double-blind randomized trial.
Michael Kotlyar
University of Minnesota, MN·Public Health & Epidemiology
Test whether people who smoke menthol cigarettes take up nicotine pouches more than medicinal nicotine, using a randomized 6-week study of 252 participants in an experimental marketplace.
The school
University of Louisville: 15 labs on PI Pages, $225M a year on research, 159 research doctorates a year.
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