Unveiling the toxicological impact of cigarette smoke exposure on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: integrated insights from network toxicology and multi-omics

Cigarette smoke (CS) is the primary environmental risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), although its systemic toxicological mechanisms remain incompletely understood. The study integrated network toxicology, multi-omics analysis, and experimental validation to elucidate CS exposure-induced COPD pathogenesis. Screening the ProTox and ADMETlab databases against 93 harmful compounds in FDA-listed cigarettes identified 9 compounds with respiratory toxicity (aflatoxin B1, anabasine, 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone, nicotine, n-nitrosonornicotine, n-nitrosopiperidine, n-nitrosopyrrolidine, and nornicotine). Twenty-eight pathogenic genes were selected by cross-referencing COPD-associated signature genes with predicted targets, which primarily enriched in folate biosynthesis, xenobiotic metabolism by cytochrome P450 and chemical carcinogenesis-reactive oxygen species pathways. By integrating three machine learning algorithms, including RF, SVM-RFE, and LASSO, we identified 7 hub genes associated with the pathogenesis of COPD, including CX3CL1, NQO1, CSGALNACT1, CBR1, KCNA1, ATP12A, and KDM5D. Bulk RNA sequencing confirmed significant dysregulation of these genes in COPD (P < 0.001). Molecular docking analyses indicated a strong binding affinity between compounds and hub targets. In vivo experiments demonstrated that CS exposure induced pulmonary dysfunction (markedly reduced FEV0.1/FVC, P < 0.01), emphysematous changes, and aberrant expression of the above hub genes. Single-cell RNA sequencing further implicated hub genes in immune microenvironment remodeling. The study systematically delineates the compound-target-disease network underlying CS-induced COPD, providing a theoretical basis for prevention, early diagnosis, and targeted therapy of COPD.