Approved Research

Association of multiple environmental exposures with adverse health impacts and their interaction with genetics and diet

Lay summary

It is well-known that exposure to a polluted environment (e.g., air pollution and noise pollution) poses a great health risk to humans. For example, approximately 4.51 million deaths worldwide in 2019 was attributed to exposure to ambient air pollution. Exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with elevated morbidity and mortality of respiratory, cardiovascular, kidney, and neurological diseases. Although it is well established that expression of certain genes makes humans more susceptible to environmental exposure induced adverse health impacts, the underlying mechanisms involving such genetic susceptibility remain unclear. In addition, research has been taken to investigate potential interventional strategies at an individual level to mitigate adverse effects of environmental exposures. Dietary components, such as vegetable and fish intake, have been suggested to confer health benefits against exposure to air pollution. There is also emerging evidence showing health benefits of exposure to natural greenness. However, compelling evidence from a large perspective study is lacking to validate these findings.

In this proposal, we will use the ample data from the UK Biobank to investigate the genetic susceptibility and modifications of environmental exposures and adverse disease outcomes. Specifically, we aim to establish association between environmental exposures and health outcome parameters of selected diseases, investigate the gene-environment interactions on the disease outcome variables, and assess the modifying effects of dietary components or greenness on the established environment - health outcome associations. The successful completion of this 36- month proposal will likely contribute to our knowledge on the genetic mechanisms of environmental pollution induced health effects and mitigation strategies. We expect to identify several key genetic pathways that are essential in the environmental exposure induced health outcomes and verify health benefits of certain dietary components or greenness against environmental exposures. The findings of this proposal will provide key scientific evidence for the policy makers to consider intervention strategies to mitigate adverse health effects of environmental exposures at an individual level.