Thoughts on Air Pollution and Accelerated Aging
A number of large epidemiological studies demonstrate that particulate air pollution correlates with mortality and incidence of age-related disease, likely via mechanisms involving increased inflammation resulting from the interaction of particulates with lung tissue. While socioeconomic status interacts with both exposure to air pollution and life expectancy, it is nonetheless possible to disentangle these effects in some population studies. While the long-term trend is towards reduced air pollution, it seems likely that chronic inflammation will be controlled and its effects on tissues reversed via novel therapeutics on much the same timescale as meaningful control over particulate levels could be achieved.
Air pollution (AirPoll) accelerates human aging, as assessed by increased adult mortality and earlier onset of cardiovascular diseases, and dementia. Socio-economic strata (SES) of wealth and education have parallel differences of mortality and these diseases. Children from impoverished homes differ in brain development at birth and in risk of early fat excess and hypertension. To further enhance the healthspan, biogerontologists may consider a wider range of environmental exposures from gestation through later life morbidity that comprise the Gero-Exposome.
Experimental studies with rodents and nematodes document shared transcriptional responses to AirPoll. In rodents, AirPoll exposure activates gene systems for body-wide detoxification through Nrf2 and NFkB transcription factors that mediate multiple aging processes. Gestational environmental factors include maternal diet and exposure to AirPoll and cigarette smoke. Correspondingly, gestational exposure of mice to AirPoll increased adult body fat, impaired glucose clearance, and decreased adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, a brain region damaged in dementia. Nematode larvae also respond to AirPoll with Alzheimer's relevant responses. These experimental approaches could identify interventions for expanded human health and longevity across SES gradients.