{"doi":"10.1101/2025.08.01.668078","title":"Mycobiome analysis of electronic cigarettes reveals a reservoir of pathogenic yeasts","abstract":"Abstract Research on the health impacts of e-cigarettes has focused on non-infectious manifestations. Given their enclosed plastic design and temperature fluctuations, we hypothesized that e-cigarettes are colonized by pathogenic microbes, thereby contributing to lung disease in users. Using sequencing and culture techniques of the devices and mouthwash of 25 users, we found only a small subset of mouthpieces to contain bacteria, whereas most were abundantly colonized with fungi that were distinct from the oral mycobiota, including the genera Rhodotorula, Aureobasidium, Cystobasidium , and Meyerozyma . Chronic exposure to the most frequently isolated pathogen, Cystobasidium minutum , resulted in mucus hypersecretion and obstructive lung disease in mice, characteristics of chronic bronchitis. We conclude that e-cigarettes are frequently colonized with fungal organisms capable of causing lung disease.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":571499,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9501,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1477630,"name":"Z. B. Zhao","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":900670,"name":"Yana Goddard","orcid":"0009-0003-5448-1823","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1391265,"name":"Arantxa V. Lazarte","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":442388,"name":"Borna Mehrad","orcid":"0000-0001-5198-065X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":344503,"name":"Jason G. Smith","orcid":"0000-0001-6727-5269","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1477629,"name":"Katy Deitz","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":57,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:15.755535Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}