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Metabolomics Application in Understanding the Link Between Air Pollution and Infant Health Outcomes: A Narrative Review

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Abstract

Air pollution and the various chemicals that are a part of this complex mixture have been associated with several adverse infant health outcomes. One major area of research is describing the underlying biological mechanism between air pollution and adverse infant health outcomes. Metabolomics, a new omics field, studies small molecules present in a biological matrix and may provide insight into underlying biological mechanism. We conducted a narrative review of the literature to identify studies utilizing metabolomics with air pollution, or some potential component of it, and adverse infant health. We identified seven studies that met our inclusion criteria. These studies described a range of potential air pollutants including tobacco smoke, PAH, NO2, PM2.5, O3, BC, heavy metals, and PFAS. The studies mainly focused on gestational age and weight outcomes. Metabolic analysis revealed many altered metabolomic pathways including those related to amino acid metabolism, glycan metabolism, lipid metabolism, and cofactor and vitamin metabolism. These studies provide valuable insight into the potential biological mechanisms that underpin the association between air pollution and adverse gestational outcomes. Future studies should utilize longitudinal study design and use complex mixture analysis for air pollution exposure assessment, as well as focus on the use of more toxicologically relevant target tissue for infant health outcomes.

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Data Availability

Data were abstracted from seven published articles. Abstracted data are available upon request or can be abstracted directly from these seven published studies (see Table 1).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all members from the Environmental Metabolomics and Exposomics Research Group at Emory (EMERGE) for their valuable input and feedback on this project.

Funding

Support for this project was provided by the National Institute of Health (NIH) research grant (R21ES032117). We also acknowledge the tremendous support from the HERCULES Exposome Research Center, supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (P30ES019776). Additionally, RBH, SH, and KS were funded by a NIEHS T32 training grant (T32ES012870).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Robert B. Hood, Susan Hoffman & Audrey J. Gaskins

  2. Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, 1518 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Sarahna Moyd, Sabrina S. Chow, Youran Tan, Priyanka Bhanushali, Yilin Wang & Donghai Liang

  3. Laney Graduate School, Nutrition and Health Sciences Program, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Kasthuri Sivalogan

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Hood, R.B., Moyd, S., Hoffman, S. et al. Metabolomics Application in Understanding the Link Between Air Pollution and Infant Health Outcomes: A Narrative Review. Curr Pollution Rep (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-024-00313-x

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