The Effect of Air Pollution on the Transcriptomics of the Immune Response to Respiratory Infection

Abstract

Combustion related particulate matter air pollution (PM) is associated with an increased risk of respiratory infections in adults. The exact mechanism underlying this association has not been determined. We hypothesized that increased concentrations of combustion related PM would result in dysregulation of the innate immune system. This epidemiological study includes 111 adult patients hospitalized with respiratory infections who underwent transcriptional analysis of their peripheral blood. We examined the association between gene expression at the time of hospitalization and ambient measurements of particulate air pollutants in the 28 days prior to hospitalization. For each pollutant and time lag, gene-specific linear models adjusting for infection type were fit using LIMMA (Linear Models For Microarray Data), and pathway /gene set analyses were performed using the CAMERA (Correlation Adjusted Mean Rank) program. Comparing patients with viral and/or bacterial infection, the expression patterns associated with air pollution exposure differed. Adjusting for the type of infection, increased concentrations of Delta-C (a marker of biomass smoke) and other PM were associated with upregulation of iron homeostasis and protein folding. Increased concentrations of black carbon (BC) were associated with upregulation of viral related pathways and downregulation of pathways related to antigen presentation. The pollutant/pathway associations differed by lag time and by type of infection. This study suggests that the effect of air pollution on the pathogenesis of respiratory infection may be pollutant, timing, and infection specific.

Air Pollution: A Review of Its Impacts on Health and Ecosystems, and Analytical Techniques for Their Measurement and Modeling

“…Exposure to air pollutants can trigger airway inflammation, impair immune cell function, and alter the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory responses. Allergic rhinitis, asthma, allergic sensitization, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus are associated with air pollution exposure (Bousquet et al, 2018;Cong et al, 2019;Flood-Garibay et al, 2019;Garibay et al, 2019;Arias-Pérez et al, 2020;Cahueñas, 2020;Glencross et al, 2020;Eguiluz-Gracia et al, 2020;Croft et al, 2021;Abdelnasser, 2022;Serafini et al, 2022;Yong et al, 2022;Sampath et al, 2023). Skin Health: Air pollution harms the state of the skin and speeds up aging (Manceb and Wang, 2015;Park et al, 2018;Nakhjirgan et al, 2019;Nobile et al, 2020;Schikowski and Hüls, 2020;Calderón-Garcidueñas et al, 2021;Park ea al., 2021;.…”