Heavy metals, organic solvents, and multiple sclerosis: An exploratory look at gene-environment interactions

Abstract

Exposure to heavy metals and organic solvents are potential etiologic factors for multiple sclerosis (MS), but their interaction with MS-associated genes is under-studied. We explored the relationship between environmental exposure to lead, mercury, and solvents and 58 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in MS-associated genes. Data from a population-based case-control study of 217 prevalent MS cases and 496 age-, race-, gender-, and geographically-matched controls were used to fit conditional logistic regression models of the association between the chemical, gene, and MS, adjusting for education and ancestry. MS cases were more likely than controls to report lead (odds ratio (OR)=2.03; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07, 3.86) and mercury exposure (OR=2.06; 95% CI: 1.08, 3.91). Findings of potential gene-environment interactions between SNPs in TNF-α, TNF-β, TCA-β, VDR, MBP, and APOE, and lead, mercury, or solvents should be considered cautiously due to limited sample size.

Multiple sclerosis – a review

“…Prior to the Second World War, few women smoked, but the number of women smoking rapidly increased post‐war, mirroring the increasing incidence of MS in women . The observation that organic solvents and smoked tobacco , but not oral tobacco or snuff , are associated with MS has led to the hypothesis that these agents cause post‐translational modifications via antigen presentation occurring in the lungs.…”

Mercury and Alzheimer’s Disease: Hg(II) Ions Display Specific Binding to the Amyloid-β Peptide and Hinder Its Fibrillization

“…Whether the negative effects of the ApoEε4 allele are in fact related to a possibly reduced capacity for binding and eliminating Hg ions remains to be investigated. Nonetheless, studies investigating the relationship between AD and Hg exposure should benefit from taking into account the ApoE genotype of the studied individuals [173,174,176].…”

Diet, Gut Microbiota, and Vitamins D + A in Multiple Sclerosis

“…MS is a multifactorial disease and various environmental factors may have a role in its development [3]. Environmental factors are of 2 types: a) of nondietetic origin: 1) viral infections (no association with Epstein-Barr virus was established in the BENEFIT study [4]); 2) heavy metal poisoning [5]; 3) cigarette smoke (no association with tobacco was Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-017-0581-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. established in the BENEFIT study [4]); b) associated with dietary habits and metabolic conditions: 1) excess body weight in childhood and adolescence [6,7]; 2) low vitamin D status [8,9]; 3) sedentary lifestyle and high-animal-fat/highsugar Western diets [10][11][12][13].…”