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Environmental Neuroscience Advancing the Understanding of How Chemical Exposures Impact Brain Health and Disease: Proceedings of a Workshop (2020) / Chapter Skim
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4 Chemical Toxicants as Drivers of Abnormal Neurodevelopment and Neurodegeneration
Pages 29-38

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From page 29...
... . • Individuals exposed to traffic-related air pollution are at an increased risk of PD when they are carriers of a variant in the inflammatory gene interleukin-1β (Ritz)
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From page 30...
... . • Multiple studies show that both heritability and environmental exposures -- particularly chlorinated pesticides -- are implicated as causes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Feldman)
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From page 31...
... Male mice also scored significantly higher on a task assessing impulsivity, said Richardson. The behavioral findings in mice were recapitulated in a separate human study, where pyrethroid pesticide exposure in children (assessed by measuring urinary levels of a pyrethroid metabolite)
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From page 32...
... . Alzheimer's Disease Accumulating data indicate that exposure to high levels of air pollution increase the risk for all-cause dementia, said Andrew Petkus (Peters et al., 2019)
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From page 33...
... . The oxidative stress and inflammation triggered by air pollution contribute to the accumulation of hallmark neuropathologies associated with AD, including amyloid β and tau tangles, brain atrophy, cognitive decline, and eventually dementia, said Petkus.
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From page 34...
... . However, imaging studies using structural magnetic resonance imaging to assess brain atrophy have produced mixed findings, he said.
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From page 35...
... CHEMICAL TOXICANTS AS DRIVERS 35 FIGURE 4-1  Paraquat and maneb are both widely used in the Central Valley of California. SOURCES: Presented by Beate Ritz, June 25, 2020; California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
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From page 36...
... 36 ENVIRONMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE FIGURE 4-1  Continued
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From page 37...
... . They also demonstrated a gene–environment interaction by showing that those exposed to traffic-related air pollution who also carried a polymorphism in the interleukin-1β gene, which is known to increase inflammatory responses in the brain, was associated with a three-fold increased risk of PD in those with high exposure to traffic (Lee et al., 2016)
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From page 38...
... Using a mathematical model, they showed that the cumulative environmental risk score for mixtures of pollutants in ALS patients was more than seven times that of controls. They also showed that exposure to persistent organic pollutants influence survival.
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Key Terms

  • lead exposure
  • amyotrophic lateral
  • lateral sclerosis
  • environmental risk
  • neurodegenerative disorders

  • cigarette smoke
  • particulate matter
  • oxidative stress
  • slow metabolizers
  • childhood lead

  • environmental exposures
  • als risk
  • brain volume
  • pranger als
  • als clinic

  • pesticide exposure
  • als patients
  • risk factors
  • brain atrophy
  • volume loss

  • locomotor activity
  • organic pollutants
  • socioeconomic status
  • downstream effects
  • impulse control

  • cognitive decline
  • individual level
  • cascading downstream
  • increased als
  • risk score


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