Mechanisms underlying nontoxic indoor air health problems: A review

Nordin, Steven

doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2020.113489

Cited by 48 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 155 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A psychobiological perspective does not in principle exclude any type of exposure, and can indeed account for the impact of, for example, bacteria, dust, fungi and their secondary metabolites. Rather than having a toxic effect, the levels at which the exposures typically are present in NBRS and CI are more likely to evoke one or several of the body's defense mechanisms described in the article (Nordin, 2020). Hence, chemical and biological compounds as well as psychological and social exposures may act as stressors if interpreted by the body/mind as potentially hazardous, and evoke a defense that we refer to as symptoms.…”

Section: A Psychobiological Rather Than a Biomedical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tuuminen et al (2020) question the choice of viewing symptoms only from the psychological perspective. In fact, all described mechanisms in the article (Nordin, 2020) are biological and psychological in nature. From my biopsychosocial perspective, it is not meaningful to separate biological and psychological processes in health and disease since they constantly interact and guide each othera perspective that has been around for close to half a century (Engel, 1977).…”

Section: A Psychobiological Rather Than a Biomedical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reply to the letter to the editor by Tuuminen et al. (2020), “Indoor air nontoxicity should be proven with special techniques prior claiming that it may cause a variety of mental disorders.”

Nordin

2020

International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre -including this research content -immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

show abstract

Section: A Psychobiological Rather Than a Biomedical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Psychobiological Rather Than a Biomedical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Reply to the letter to the editor by Tuuminen et al. (2020), “Indoor air nontoxicity should be proven with special techniques prior claiming that it may cause a variety of mental disorders.”

Nordin

2020

International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Dysbiosis decreases resilience against changes in environmental exposure and promotes systemic subclinical inflammation, allergy, and asthma [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], symptoms also associated with wet buildings [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. The pathophysiological mechanism behind the morbidity associated with wet buildings is still an open question [ 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ], but enhancement of dysbiosis, loss of tolerance to environmental microbes, and activation of inflammasomes by exposure to immunoreactive antimicrobial substances from wet, “moldy” buildings cannot be excluded [ 13 , 35 , 44 , 51 , 54 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 64 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melinacidin-Producing Acrostalagmus luteoalbus, a Major Constituent of Mixed Mycobiota Contaminating Insulation Material in an Outdoor Wall

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Occupants may complain about indoor air quality in closed spaces where the officially approved standard methods for indoor air quality risk assessment fail to reveal the cause of the problem. This study describes a rare genus not previously detected in Finnish buildings, Acrostalagmus, and its species A. luteoalbus as the major constituents of the mixed microbiota in the wet cork liner from an outdoor wall. Representatives of the genus were also present in the settled dust in offices where occupants suffered from symptoms related to the indoor air. One strain, POB8, was identified as A. luteoalbus by ITS sequencing. The strain produced the immunosuppressive and cytotoxic melinacidins II, III, and IV, as evidenced by mass spectrometry analysis. In addition, the classical toxigenic species indicating water damage, mycoparasitic Trichoderma, Aspergillus section Versicolores, Aspergillus section Circumdati, Aspergillus section Nigri, and Chaetomium spp., were detected in the wet outdoor wall and settled dust from the problematic rooms. The offices exhibited no visible signs of microbial growth, and the airborne load of microbial conidia was too low to explain the reported symptoms. In conclusion, we suggest the possible migration of microbial bioactive metabolites from the wet outdoor wall into indoor spaces as a plausible explanation for the reported complaints.

show abstract

“…Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) (or multiple chemical sensitivity) patients have recurring, non-specific symptoms in multiple organ systems attributed to environmental factors with no medical and exposure-related explanation [ 7 ]. IEI is considered a functional somatic disorder of biopsychosocial nature rather than a toxicological response [ 8 , 9 ]. In Finland and other Northern European countries, these patients often attribute their symptoms to buildings [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptomic Profiling of Adult-Onset Asthma Related to Damp and Moldy Buildings and Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance

Suojalehto

Ndika

Lindström

et al. 2021

IJMS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A subset of adult-onset asthma patients attribute their symptoms to damp and moldy buildings. Symptoms of idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) may resemble asthma and these two entities overlap. We aimed to evaluate if a distinct clinical subtype of asthma related to damp and moldy buildings can be identified, to unravel its corresponding pathomechanistic gene signatures, and to investigate potential molecular similarities with IEI. Fifty female adult-onset asthma patients were categorized based on exposure to building dampness and molds during disease initiation. IEI patients (n = 17) and healthy subjects (n = 21) were also included yielding 88 study subjects. IEI was scored with the Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI) questionnaire. Inflammation was evaluated by blood cell type profiling and cytokine measurements. Disease mechanisms were investigated via gene set variation analysis of RNA from nasal biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Nasal biopsy gene expression and plasma cytokine profiles suggested airway and systemic inflammation in asthma without exposure to dampness (AND). Similar evidence of inflammation was absent in patients with dampness-and-mold-related asthma (AAD). Gene expression signatures revealed a greater degree of similarity between IEI and dampness-related asthma than between IEI patients and asthma not associated to dampness and mold. Blood cell transcriptome of IEI subjects showed strong suppression of immune cell activation, migration, and movement. QEESI scores correlated to blood cell gene expression of all study subjects. Transcriptomic analysis revealed clear pathomechanisms for AND but not AAD patients. Furthermore, we found a distinct molecular pathological profile in nasal and blood immune cells of IEI subjects, including several differentially expressed genes that were also identified in AAD samples, suggesting IEI-type mechanisms.

show abstract

Mechanisms underlying nontoxic indoor air health problems: A review

Cited by 48 publications

References 155 publications

Reply to the letter to the editor by Tuuminen et al. (2020), “Indoor air nontoxicity should be proven with special techniques prior claiming that it may cause a variety of mental disorders.”

Reply to the letter to the editor by Tuuminen et al. (2020), “Indoor air nontoxicity should be proven with special techniques prior claiming that it may cause a variety of mental disorders.”

Melinacidin-Producing Acrostalagmus luteoalbus, a Major Constituent of Mixed Mycobiota Contaminating Insulation Material in an Outdoor Wall

Transcriptomic Profiling of Adult-Onset Asthma Related to Damp and Moldy Buildings and Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About