Konstantinos E Farsalinos

University of Patras | UP · Department of Pharmacy

In Sweden, almost one in four adults use nicotine daily. That is the same level of nicotine consumption as is found across Europe. Yet Sweden’s incidence of cancer is 41% lower than the European average and it suffers less than half of the tobacco-related deaths experienced by 24 of its 26 EU neighbours. What is the reason for this remarkable dispa...

Background In the last few years, several nicotine products have become available as alternatives to smoking tobacco. While laboratory and limited clinical studies suggest that these devices are less toxic compared to classic tobacco cigarettes, very little is known about their epidemiological impact. Visiting the emergency department (ED) often re...

BACKGROUND In the last years several alternative to smoking nicotine products have become available. While laboratory and limited clinical studies suggest that these devices are less toxic compared to classic tobacco cigarettes, very little is still known about their epidemiological impact. Visiting the Emergency Department (ED) often represents th...

Background Flavored e-cigarettes remain a controversial topic with regulators planning or already implementing restrictions worldwide. In this study, we examined patterns of flavor use in e-cigarettes among a convenience sample of US adult vapers. Methods Participants aged ≥ 18 years who reported ever using an e-cigarette were included in the stud...

Despite its significant decline in the general population, smoking remains endemic and highly prevalent among people with mental disorders. The impact of smoking-attributable morbidity on life expectancy is significant since, in comparison to the general population, people with severe mental disorders have a 15-20-year reduction in life expectancy....

Background In the last years several alternative to smoking nicotine products have become available. While laboratory and limited clinical studies suggest that these devices are less toxic compared to classic tobacco cigarettes, very little is still known about their epidemiological impact. Visiting the Emergency Department (ED) often represents th...

Background Flavored e-cigarettes remain a controversial topic with regulators planning or already implementing restrictions worldwide. In this study we examined patterns of flavors use in e-cigarettes among a convenience sample of US adult vapers. Methods Participants aged ≥ 18 years who reported ever using an e-cigarette were included in the stud...

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on children's and adolescents' mental health in Greece during the lockdown of spring 2020. A cross‐sectional survey of 1232 Greek parents was conducted in spring 2020. 35.1% of parents reported that their children's psychological health was significantly affected. Parental...

Soon after the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) pandemic in December, 2019, numerous research teams, assisted by vast capital investments, achieved vaccine development in a fraction of time. However, almost 8 months following the initiation of the European vaccination programme, the need for prospective...

The innate immune cells play an important role in handling early infections, and can eliminate them completely up to a certain threshold. Beyond that threshold they take up their role in “The Resolution of Inflammation”. The recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen triggers an eicosanoid storm and initiates a robust inflammatory response. This establi...

The innate immune cells play an important role in handling early infections, and can eliminate them completely up to a certain threshold. Beyond that threshold they take up their role in “The Resolution of Inflammation”. The recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen triggers an eicosanoid storm and initiates a robust inflammatory response. This establi...

The human immune system has a generic response strategy to viral infections that begins with local inflammation at the infected site along with the initiation of a primary innate immune response. Beyond a certain threshold, innate immune cells cannot handle the infection, and they call upon adaptive immunity. The innate cells then take up their rol...

The human immune system has a generic response strategy to viral infections that begins with local inflammation at the infected site along with the initiation of a primary innate immune response. Beyond a certain threshold, innate immune cells cannot handle the infection, and they call upon adaptive immunity. The innate cells then take up their rol...

Objectives The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and mitigation measures based on social distancing are expected to have serious adverse effects on mental health. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine self-reported changes in the mental health status of Greek adults. Study design The current study is a primary research conducted o...

SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in December 2019 and has spread globally. Studies have shown that smokers are less likely to be diagnosed with or be hospitalized for COVID-19 but, once hospitalized, have higher odds for an adverse outcome. We have previously presented the potential interaction between SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycopr...

Background There is a lot of debate about the effects of smoking on COVID-19. A recent fixed-effects meta-analysis found smoking to be associated with disease severity among hospitalized patients, but other studies report an unusually low prevalence of smoking among hospitalized patients. The purpose of this study was to expand the analysis by calc...

Smoking is one of the most lethal addictions, with more than 8 million premature deaths being recorded annually from smoking-related diseases, according to the WHO. While nicotine is the main substance linked to dependence, harm is predominantly caused by combustion products or other harmful compounds present in cured tobacco. Due to the difficulty...

COVID-19 pandemic mitigation strategies are mainly based on social distancing measures and healthcare system reinforcement. However, many countries in Europe and elsewhere implemented strict, horizontal lockdowns because of extensive viral spread in the community which challenges the capacity of the healthcare systems. However, strict lockdowns hav...

Background Mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown measures are expected to be profound. Aim The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of the pandemic and the lockdown on children’s and adolescents’ mental health in Greece. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 1,232 Greek parents of children and...

The present study investigates the interaction between cannabidiol (CBD) oil and three biopesticides: Azatin and two baculovirus formulations (Madex and Helicovex), both separately and in combination, in order to investigate their interaction against adults of four major coleopteran stored-product pests: Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: Curculionida...

In a recent study, Gaiha et al. examined the association between e-cigarette use and COVID-19 in an online cross-sectional study of people aged 13-24 years conducted from May 6 to May 14, 2020. We have noticed serious issues in population weighting, response bias and biological implausibility. The suggested conclusions and interpretation of the stu...

SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan in December 2019 and has spread globally. The observation of a low prevalence of smokers among hospitalized COVID-19 patients has led to the development of a hypothesis that nicotine could have protective effects by enhancing the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. Based on clinical data and...

While SARS-CoV-2 uses Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) as the receptor for cell 17 entry, it is important to examine for other potential interactions between the virus and other cell 18 receptors. Based on the clinical observation of low prevalence of smoking among hospitalized 19 COVID-19 patients, we examined and identified a "toxin-like" a...

Background There is insufficient information about risk factors for COVID-19 diagnosis and adverse outcomes from low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objectives We estimated the association between patients’ characteristics and COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalisation and adverse outcome in Mexico. Methods This retrospective case series used a pub...

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and effects of current smoking on adverse outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods: A systematic review of the literature (PubMed) identified 18 (from a total of 1398) relevant studies. Pooled current smoking prevalence was compared with the gender-adjusted and gen...

Background: There is insufficient information about risk factors for COVID-19 diagnosis and adverse outcomes from low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Objectives: We estimated the association between patients characteristics and COVID-19 diagnosis, hospitalization and adverse outcome in Mexico. Methods: This retrospective case series used a pub...

Aims To examine changes from 2017 to 2018 in e‐cigarette use and ever marijuana use with e‐cigarettes among US adolescents. Design Analysis of data from the 2017 and 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), cross‐sectional surveys of US middle school (grades 6–8) and high school (grades 9–12) students. Setting USA Participants US adolescent po...

According to numerous recent publications, the COVID-19 patients have lymphopenia, higher infection-related biomarkers and several elevated inflammatory cytokines (i.e. tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin IL-2R and IL-6). The total number of B cells, T cells and NK cells are significantly decreased. RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 included, hit the...

While SARS-CoV-2 uses angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as the receptor for cell entry, it is important to examine for other potential interactions between the virus and other cell receptors. Based on the clinical observation of low smoking prevalence among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, we recently identified a "toxin-like" amino acid (aa) s...

Smoking is a risk factor for respiratory infections and there is reasonable concern that it may affect COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Recent studies have focused on the interaction between smoking (and nicotine) and ACE2 expression, suggesting that ACE2 up-regulation could contribute to enhanced viral cell entry. However, case series have sh...

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence and effects of current smoking on adverse outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods: We performed a systematic review of the literature (PubMed) for studies published until April 25. Studies were included into the analysis if they satisfied all of the following criteri...

The effects of smoking on Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to systematically examine the prevalence of current smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, considering the high-population smoking prevalence in China (26.6%). A systematic review of the literature (PubMed) was pe...

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. On 23 March, we presented for the first time evidence of a low prevalence of smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China. On 3 April, we were the first to establish the hypothesis that nicotine may be beneficial for COVID-19 patients and shou...

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. On 23 March, we presented for the first time evidence of a low prevalence of smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China. On 3 April, we were the first to establish the hypothesis that nicotine may be beneficial for COVID-19 patients and shou...

The study purpose was to examine the prevalence of current e-cigarette use and current smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, considering the high population smoking prevalence in the country (26.6%, 50.5% in males and 2.1% in females). A systematic research of the literature (PubMed) was performed on April 1. Out of 432 stud...

The study purpose was to examine the prevalence of current e-cigarette use and current smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, considering the high population smoking prevalence in the country (26.6%, 50.5% in males and 2.1% in females). A systematic research of the literature (PubMed) was performed on April 1. Out of 432 studie...

The study purpose was to examine the prevalence of current e-cigarette use and current smoking among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, considering the high population smoking prevalence in the country (26.6%, 50.5% in males and 2.1% in females). A systematic research of the literature (PubMed) was performed on April 1. Out of 432 studi...

Background Tobacco smoking is one of the biggest and avoidable public health threats in the world, especially in low- and middle-income countries. India represents a highly complex public health environment due to the large number of smokers and complexities arising from tobacco use in different forms, including a variety of smokeless tobacco (SLT)...

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). Through a systematic research of the literature (PubMed) we identified 7 studies examining the clinical characteristics of a total of 2352 h...

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 6 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 5 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 5 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

The study presents an analysis of the current smoking prevalence among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in China, compared to the population smoking prevalence in China (52.1% in males and 2.7% in females). We identified 5 studies examining the clinical characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients that presented data on the smoking status....

Cigarette smoking (CS) causes significant morbidity worldwide, attributed to the numerous toxicants generated by tobacco combustion. Electronic cigarettes (ECIG) and heated tobacco products (HTP) are considered alternative smoking/vaping products that deliver nicotine through an inhaled aerosol and emit fewer harmful constituents than CS. However,...

Objectives To examine the association between electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use and smoking cessation in the European Union (EU) in 2017 according to e-cigarette use frequency and smoking cessation duration. Design Cross-sectional survey of EU citizens, representative of the population (Special Eurobarometer 458). Weighted proportions (95% CI...

The number and popularity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and especially e-cigarettes (e-cigs) have been increasing in the last decade. Although ENDS owe their popularity to excluding the harmful chemicals that are present in tobacco smoke, there is a debate whether they are safe, regulated, and as harmless as they are assumed to be...

Background Smoking is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. E-cigarettes are an emerging and controversial public health issue. It is unknown how e-cigarette use affects cardiovascular disease. Purpose In this study, we examine the association between e-cigarette use and myocardial infarction (MI) in two large population-representative s...

Background This study analyzed the National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS) of 2016 ( n = 33,028) and 2017 ( n = 26,742) to examine whether e-cigarette use is consistently associated with myocardial infarction (MI) and coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods Surveys were examined separately and pooled. Logistic regression analysis was used, with dem...

Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of chemical compounds which are emitted during the processes of tobacco combustion. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are expected to produce less harmful compounds due to the absence of tobacco leaf combustion. However, potential risks of the passive exposure to the aerosol exhaled by e-cig users have been raised...

Introduction: A recent study raised concerns about e-cigarette liquids toxicity by reporting the presence of 14 flavouring chemicals with toxicity classification. However, the relevant toxicity classification was not estimated according to the measured concentrations. The purpose of this study was to calculate the toxicity classification for differ...

Introduction The study purpose was to examine the association between electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use and smoking cessation among United States (US) adults. Duration of smoking cessation was taken into consideration since e-cigarette awareness and use were low in the US before 2010. Methods Pooled analysis of the 2016 and 2017 National Heal...

The purpose was to examine the association between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation according to quit duration in Greece in 2017. A cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of adults living in Attica prefecture was performed in May 2017 through telephone interviews. The present analysis was confined to current and former smokers (n =...

To understand the population impact of e-cigarettes, it is important to examine the profile of e-cigarette users. The purpose was to examine the characteristics, patterns of e-cigarette use and smoking status of a random sample of vapeshops customers in Greece. Fourteen vapeshops were randomly selected in the region of Athens. Every third customer...

Introduction: A recent study reported levels of metal emissions in e-cigarette (EC) aerosol. Herein we present a risk assessment analysis of the published findings using total daily exposure limits. Methods: Median and 75th percentile metal concentrations in EC aerosols were used to determine the level of daily liquid consumption (g/d) that would e...

Introduction Heated tobacco products have been recently marketed as harm reduction products, but the scientific literature is mostly comprised of industry funded studies. The aim of this independently-funded study was to compare carbonyl emissions from a novel heated tobacco product (IQOS) in comparison with a commercial tobacco cigarette and a new...

Aims To measure carbonyl emissions from a heated tobacco product (IQOS) in comparison with an e‐cigarette (Nautilus Mini) and a commercial tobacco cigarette (Marlboro Red). Design Regular and menthol variants of the heated tobacco product were tested. A tank‐type atomizer was tested with a tobacco‐flavoured liquid at 10 W and 14 W. Aerosol and smo...

Background: The purpose was to assess prevalence and correlates of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use in Greece in 2017. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 4058 adults living in Attica prefecture (35% of the Greek adult population) was performed in May 2017 through telephone interviews. Prevalence and frequency o...

Introduction: E-cigarette use by adolescents is an important issue for public health. This study analyzed the frequency of e-cigarette use and its association with smoking status among U.S. adolescents. Methods: The National Youth Tobacco Survey 2015 was analyzed in 2017, focusing on frequency of past 30-day e-cigarette use according to smoking...

Aldehydes are produced in e-cigarette aerosols, as a result of the thermal decomposition of vegetable glycerin, propylene glycerol and flavorings in the atomizer. These aldehydes were collected with derivatization into 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine using impinger trapping. A new methodology for simultaneous quantitative analysis of aldehydes in base l...

Electronic cigarettes are considered healthier alternatives to conventional cigarettes containing tobacco. They produce vapor through heating of the refill liquids (e-liquids) which consist of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine (in various concentrations), water and flavoring agents. Heavy metals may enter the refill liquid during the p...

Introduction: A recent study identified up to 10,000-fold higher aldehyde emissions from flavoured compared to unflavoured e-cigarette liquids. We set to replicate this study and also test similar flavourings with a new-generation e-cigarette device. Methods: Three liquids with the highest levels of aldehyde emissions in the previous study were...

Carbonyl emissions from tobacco cigarettes represent a substantial health risk contributing to smoking-related morbidity and mortality. As expected, this is an important research topic for tobacco harm reduction products, in an attempt to compare the relative risk of these products compared to tobacco cigarettes. In this study, a systematic review...

e-Cigarettes represent alternative-to-smoking products which produce a visible aerosol that the user inhales. They simulate the psychobehavioral aspects of smoking dependence and deliver the chemical component of the smoking dependence, nicotine. Their intended use, from a public health perspective, is for harm reduction. Thus they could be used fo...

Regulation of e-Cigarettes is important in ensuring product quality, maximum possible safety, consistent performance, and effectiveness as a smoking substitute. The variability of different liquids, battery devices, and atomizers results in innumerable combinations that can be used by consumers. Additionally, the patterns of use and the performance...