Interactions across Different Exposures and Life-Stages in Exposome Research

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Exposome".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2022) | Viewed by 8927

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Chemical Biology, Vas. Constantinou 48, 11635 Athens, Greece
Interests: biomarkers; environmental genomics; DNA damage and repair; environmental toxicology; cancer epidemiology

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Guest Editor
Water and Health Laboratory, Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Irinis 95, Limassol 3041, Cyprus
Interests: human exposome; environmental health; non-pharmacological trial; metabolomics

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

The concept of the exposome has broadened the range of exposures that must be considered for their possible role in the pathogenesis of human disease and has highlighted the importance of the effects that such exposures, occurring at different life-stages, exert in the determination of the overall risk of disease. An additional major consideration highlighted by the exposome concept concerns the way in which different exposures, whether concurrent or occurring at different life-stages, may interact and jointly modify the overall risk of disease.

Thanks to these innovative ideas, the exposome has served as a stimulus for significant advances in various areas of public and environmental health research, including exposure assessment, in utero and early-life exposures and downstream effects, as well as novel statistical tools for the analysis of highly complex datasets. On the other hand, the problem of potential interactions between the multiplicity of exposures has been less extensively studied and still represents a largely unexplored practical and theoretical challenge. The identification of such interactions in the complexity of exposures or co-exposures, often highly correlated, that are often present in high-dimensional datasets of population health, warrants the use of specialized study designs and advanced algorithms for statistical analyses. Environment-wide association studies and their exposomic tools represent novel approaches to tackle societal challenges in environmental health, toxicology, and precision medicine. For this Special Issue, we wish to invite manuscripts of all types (original studies, reviews, perspectives, etc.) that address all of the above aspects and the utility of the exposome’s methodological framework, with a particular focus on the interactions between exposures and across different life-stages.

Prof. Dr. Soterios A. Kyrtopoulos
Dr. Konstantinos C. Makris
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • mixture toxicology
  • in utero exposures
  • epigenetic memory
  • delayed effects
  • early-life exposures
  • nutrient deficiencies
  • social stress
  • environment-wide association studies
  • acquired susceptibility
  • biomarkers

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1259 KiB  
Article
Diurnal Variation in Biomarkers of Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals and Their Association with Oxidative Damage in Norwegian Adults: The EuroMix Study
by Samuel Olushola Abimbola, Christina Xeni, Amrit Kaur Sakhi, Behzad Heibati, Trine Husøy, Hubert Dirven and Konstantinos C. Makris
Toxics 2022, 10(4), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10040181 - 7 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3750
Abstract
Much evidence on the adverse health effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has accumulated during recent decades. EDCs are commonly found in various foods and personal care products (PCP). Data documenting a diurnally varying EDC metabolism in humans is scarce. This study examined (i) [...] Read more.
Much evidence on the adverse health effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has accumulated during recent decades. EDCs are commonly found in various foods and personal care products (PCP). Data documenting a diurnally varying EDC metabolism in humans is scarce. This study examined (i) the time-of-day effect on the diurnal magnitude and variance of urinary biomarkers of exposure to EDCs, and (ii) the association between EDC exposures and oxidative damage in a Norwegian adult subpopulation. This was a cross-sectional panel study using biobanked samples from the EuroMix project. During a typical weekday, participants were asked to collect all day’s urine voids and record dietary and PCP habitual uses in a diary. Collected time stamps of urine voids were classified into three distinct periods in the day (morning 6 a.m.–12 p.m., mid-day 12 p.m.–6 p.m., evening 6 p.m.–6 a.m.). Questionnaires regarding demographic characteristics, personal care product usage, and dietary habits were completed. Urinary levels of EDCs (phthalates, parabens, and bisphenols) were measured using mass spectrometry and adjusted for urinary volume using specific gravity. Urinary 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), a lipid peroxidation marker, was measured using an immunoassay kit. Linear mixed-effect models identified EDCs under the influence of a diurnal variation effect that was adjusted for dietary habits and PCP use and examined associations between EDC and 4HNE. p-values were FDR-adjusted. Most phthalates appeared to be diurnally varying with higher urinary levels towards the evening (q < 0.001) than those measured during mid-day; this strong diurnal variation effect was not present for parabens and bisphenols. Significant (q < 0.001) positive associations were observed between all phthalates, parabens, and bisphenols (except bisphenol S) and 4HNE. This study’s findings highlighted the diurnal variation of excretion for certain EDC, but not for others, in real-life conditions. The degree of EDC chronotoxicity in distinct diurnal windows of the day warrants further investigation with longitudinal human studies. Full article
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13 pages, 1113 KiB  
Article
Residential Green and Blue Spaces and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Population-Based Health Study in China
by Ruijia Li, Gongbo Chen, Anqi Jiao, Yuanan Lu, Yuming Guo, Shanshan Li, Chongjian Wang and Hao Xiang
Toxics 2021, 9(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9010011 - 16 Jan 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4086
Abstract
Evidence on the health benefits of green space in residential environments is still limited, and few studies have investigated the potential association between blue space and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence. This study included 39,019 participants who had completed the baseline survey [...] Read more.
Evidence on the health benefits of green space in residential environments is still limited, and few studies have investigated the potential association between blue space and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) prevalence. This study included 39,019 participants who had completed the baseline survey from the Henan Rural Cohort Study, 2015–2017. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) were employed to characterize the residential green space, and the distance from the participant’s residential address to the nearest water body was considered to represent the residential blue space. Mixed effect models were applied to evaluate the associations of the residential environment with T2DM and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels. An interquartile range (IQR) increase in NDVI and EVI was significantly associated with a 13.4% (odds ratio (OR): 0.866, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 0.830,0.903) and 14.2% (OR: 0.858, 95% CI: 0.817,0.901) decreased risk of T2DM, respectively. The residential green space was associated with lower fasting blood glucose levels in men (%change, −2.060 in men vs. −0.972 in women) and the elderly (%change, −1.696 in elderly vs. −1.268 in young people). Additionally, people who lived more than 5 km from the water body had a 15.7% lower risk of T2DM (OR: 0.843, 95% CI: 0.770,0.923) and 1.829% lower fasting blood glucose levels (95% CI: −2.335%,−1.320%) than those who lived closer to the blue space. Our findings suggest that residential green space was beneficially associated with T2DM and fasting blood glucose levels. However, further research is needed to explore more comprehensively the relationship between residential blue space and public health. Full article
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