Occupational Exposure Gene Interaction : Review Article

Abstract

The lack of knowledge about the earliest events in occupational disease development is due to the multi-factorial nature of disease risk. This information gap is the consequence of the lack of appreciation for the fact that most occupational diseases arise from the complex interactions between genes and the occupational exposure. Whether an occupational exposure causes illness or not is dependent on the efficiency of metabolic pathways. Thus, elucidating the causes of most chronic diseases will require an understanding of both the genetic and occupational contribution to their etiology. Unfortunately, the exploration of the relationship between genes and the occupational exposure has been hampered in the past by the limited knowledge of the human genome, and by the inclination of scientists to study disease development using experimental models that consider exposure to a single environmental agent in the workplace. To understand how genes and occupational agents interact to initiate biological pathways to cause injury or disease, scientists will need tools with the capacity to monitor the global expression of thousands of genes, proteins and metabolites simultaneously. The generation of such data in multiple species can be used to identify conserved and functionally significant genes and pathways involved in gene environment interactions. The complex interplay between genes and occupational exposure represents also a great challenge to scientists, and it is also an important opportunity to reduce the burden of disease and dysfunctions on humans. Major technological advances in the last few years have increased our knowledge of the role that genetics has in occupational diseases and our understanding of genetic components and the interaction between genetics and environmental factors. The complex interplay between genes and occupational exposure represents also a great challenge to scientists, and it is also an important opportunity to reduce the burden of disease and dysfunctions on humans.