The preliminary investigation of potential response biomarkers to air pollution (PAHs) exposure on childhood asthma

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent five years, air quality in China has been gradually improved; however, the prevalence of asthma in China has still increased significantly. This study aims to examine whether air pollution exposure is a significant contributor to childhood asthma and to explore the mechanisms using exposure and response biomarkers. MethodsThe generalized additive model was applied to evaluate the effects of air pollutants on asthma hospitalization. Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHPyr) was determined as PAHs exposure biomarker.Metabolic profiles and microbial diversity were screened and selected as response biomarkers. ResultsDaily average concentrations of the six common air pollutants were not significantly associated with daily childhood asthma hospitalization. Urinary 1-OHPyr level showed large variability among asthmatic children and were positively correlated with the abundance of Prevotella (genus level) and purine metabolism. ConclusionsThe biomarker of PAHs exposure is associated with metabolic and microbiological biomarkers of childhood asthma. As the potential health risk, we suggest that PAHs should be included in the national monitoring system aiming to reduce the exposure.in the role of air pollution in the prevalence of asthma [7]. Until now, there has been no update evidence regarding the association between air pollution exposure and childhood asthma in recent five years in China.In addition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as the most abundant component of atmospheric particulate matters has been found related to the onsets of asthma or exacerbation of asthma symptoms [8][9][10][11][12]. Recent evidence suggests that PAHs exposure altered the abundance of commensal bacteria that were associated with health outcomes. Atmospherica PAHs exposure could influence the composition and abundance of skin microbiota and induce endocrine signaling pathway disrupted [13]. It has been demonstrated that the development of asthma is highly associated with the microbiogical circumstance [14]. Atmospherica PAHs exposure may also induce the aberrant metabolic profiling focused on oxidative stress that leads to airway inflammation [15]. Importantly, studies in childhood asthma linking environmental PAH exposure, human commensal microbiota and metabolic pathways are largely unknown. To better understand how PAHs exerts its effects on childhood asthma, omics analysis based on microbiome and metabolome were performed. Therefore in the present study, we firstly used the public data to analyze the asscociation between the six common air pollutants (SO 2 , NO 2 , CO, O 3 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 ) and childhood asthma hospitalization in Nanjing for 2015-2018. We aimed to clarify the effects of these air pollutants on asthma under current environment. Then by measuring urinary 1-OHPyr as internal exposure biomarker to PAHs, we expected to find response biomarkers based on the changes of the global metabolic signatures and throat microbial diversity in asthmatic children and explored the underlying mechanisms associate...