The pollutome-connectome axis: a putative mechanism to explain pollution effects on neurodegeneration

Prominent role of PM10 but not of circulating inflammation in the link between air pollution and the risk of neurodegenerative disorders

“…Interestingly, this influence was independent on diverse other factors representing known risk/protective factors for AD and PD, including lifestyles like physical activity, smoking, drinking and adherence to Mediterranean Diet [35,36], and on professional factors like working class and exposure to toxic compounds. While a link between PM10 and neurodegenerative risk has been long hypothesized, only few studies supported this through statistical evidence -especially for AD -and recent meta-analyses revealed contrasting results and a yet unclear relationship [13,15,16]. Indeed, most of the studies have so far supported an association of increased AD and PD risk with PM2.5 and NO2 [13,15,17,18,37,38], but findings on PM10 are less consistent.…”

“…While a link between PM10 and neurodegenerative risk has been long hypothesized, only few studies supported this through statistical evidence -especially for AD -and recent meta-analyses revealed contrasting results and a yet unclear relationship [13,15,16]. Indeed, most of the studies have so far supported an association of increased AD and PD risk with PM2.5 and NO2 [13,15,17,18,37,38], but findings on PM10 are less consistent. A geospatial analysis of PD cases and controls reported a significant difference in the mean annual NO2 and PM10 levels between areas where PD cases were concentrated (hotspots) and those where they were not (coldspots) [23].…”

“…We tested circulating inflammation as a variable possibly explaining the association between air pollution and neurodegenerative risk, as hypothesized elsewhere [8,13,30,31]. Specifically, we used a composite blood-based inflammation index, called INFLA-score, based on four circulating biomarkers -C-reactive protein levels (CRP), blood platelet count (Plt), white blood cell count (WBC), and granulocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (GLR) -and capturing both serum and cellular-circulating inflammation [32].…”

“…While recent reviews and meta-analyses have reported growing evidence suggesting that chronic exposure to air pollution -especially to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and nitric dioxide (NO2) -is associated with an increased risk of both incident and prevalent neurodegenerative disorders like AD and PD [13,14,15,16], these associations are often not replicated and only partly concordant across the different studies, for several reasons. Among them, the heterogeneity of study settings probably represents one of the main hindrances to results concordance, with very scarce longitudinal studies carried out in large real cohorts (e.g.…”

Conceptual model to inform Legionella–amoebae control, including the roles of extracellular vesicles in engineered water system infections

“…Managing emerging hazards has taken a more wholistic perspective in the last decade, and such an approach maybe particularly pertinent to legionellosis management. Stepping back to a broader view, we have an increasingly urbanized world population with its pollution becoming a dominant public health concern (via what is call the ‘pollutome’) ( Pini et al., 2023 ). For chemical exposures there is also an increasing use of omics informed decisions about the exposome ( Vlaanderen et al., 2021 ).…”