An anonymous reader cites the Guardian's report. Air pollution from traffic is associated with some more severe forms of dementia and may be a significant cause of dementia in people who are not yet genetically susceptible, study suggests has been done. A study conducted in Atlanta, Georgia, found that people with high exposure to traffic-related fine particulate matter air pollution were more likely to have large amounts of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease in their brains. did. The findings are a warning to people living in towns and cities, especially those living near busy roads, that road traffic pollution can cause everything from climate change to respiratory illnesses. This adds to the already known harm.
A team of researchers at Emory University in Atlanta set out to specifically examine how exposure to a type of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 affects people's brains. It consists of airborne particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (approximately 1/100th the thickness of a human hair) that can penetrate deep into living tissue, including crossing the blood-brain barrier. is known. Traffic-related PM2.5 concentrations are a major source of air pollution not only in the Atlanta metropolitan area, but also in urban centers around the globe. […] “We found that donors living in areas with high exposure to traffic-related air pollution, particularly PM2.5, had higher levels of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology,” said Dr. Anke Huels said. Atlanta was the study's lead author. “Specifically, we looked at the score used to assess amyloid plaques in the brain in autopsy samples, and found that donors living in areas with high levels of air pollution also had lower levels of amyloid plaques in their bodies. It showed that the brain is high.”
In the brains of the subjects studied by the research team, there was a positive correlation between exposure to high levels of PM2.5 and the level of amyloid plaques in the brain. Researchers found that people who had a 1 μg/m3 higher exposure to PM2.5 in the year before death were almost twice as likely to have higher levels of amyloid plaques in their brains than those who died. They found that 87% of people had high exposure to PM2.5 in the previous three years. You are more likely to have high plaque levels. Huels and her team also investigated whether ApoE4, a key genetic mutation associated with Alzheimer's disease, influences the relationship between air pollution and signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain. “We found that the association between air pollution and Alzheimer's disease severity was stronger among people who did not carry the ApoE4 allele, meaning they were at less strong genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease,” Huels said. Stated. “This suggests that environmental exposures, such as air pollution, may explain some of the risk of Alzheimer's disease in people that is not explained by genetic risk factors.” The findings were published by the American Academy of Neurology. Published in the online version of the medical journal “Neurology”.
