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Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Ppublish 6 citations

PubMed: 36640488 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107735

Short-term air pollution and temperature exposure and changes in the extracellular microRNA profile of Normative Aging Study (NAS) participants.

Environ Int 171:107735

Authors: Mahdieh Danesh Yazdi, Feiby L Nassan, Anna Kosheleva, Cuicui Wang, Zongli Xu, Qian Di, Weeberb J Requia, Nicole T Comfort, Haotian Wu, Louise C Laurent, Peter DeHoff, Pantel Vokonas, Andrea A Baccarelli, Joel D Schwartz

Affiliations

  • Program in Public Health, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA; Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Biogen Inc, Cambridge, MA, USA.
  • Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis and Biostatistics Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Durham, NC, USA.
  • Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  • School of Public Policy and Government, Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil.
  • Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
  • Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
  • Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian and Avidisian School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
  • Department of Environmental Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND

While the health effects of air pollution and temperature are widely studied, the molecular effects are poorly understood. Extracellular microRNAs (ex-miRNAs) have the potential to serve as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers and/or to act as intercellular signaling molecules that mediate the effects of environmental exposures on health outcomes.

METHODS

We examined the relationship between short-term exposure to air pollution and ambient temperature and the ex-miRNA profiles of participants in the Normative Aging Study (NAS) from 1999 to 2015. Our exposures were defined as same-day, two-day, three-day, one-week, two-week, and three-week moving averages of PM 2.5, NO 2, O 3, and temperature which were derived from high-resolution spatio-temporal models. The ex-miRNA profiles of the subjects were obtained during follow-up visits. We analyzed the data using a longitudinal quantile regression model adjusted for individual covariates, batch effects, and time trends. We adjusted for multiple comparisons using a false discovery rate (FDR) correction. Ex-miRNAs that were significantly associated with exposures were further investigated using pathway analyses.

RESULTS

We found that all the examined exposures were associated with changes in ex-miRNA profiles in our study, particularly PM 2.5 which was responsible for most of the statistically significant results. We found 110 statistically significant exposure-outcome relationships that revealed associations with the levels of 52 unique ex-miRNAs. Pathway analyses showed these ex-miRNAs have been linked to target mRNAs, genes, and biological mechanisms that could affect virtually every organ system, and as such may be linked to multiple clinical disease presentations such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and neurological disease.

CONCLUSIONS

Air pollution and temperature exposures were significantly associated with alterations in the ex-miRNA profiles of NAS subjects with possible biological consequences.

MeSH

Aging, Temperature, Air Pollution, Environmental Pollution, Environmental Health, Micrornas

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