Chemistry and Materials Science Seminar: Building Evidence for the Role of Ambient Ultrafine Particulate Matter in Neurodegenerative Disease Pathogenesis
Chemistry and Materials Science Seminar
Building Evidence for the Role of Ambient Ultrafine Particulate Matter in Neurodegenerative Disease Pathogenesis
Dr. Alison Elder
Department of Environmental Medicine
University of Rochester
Abstract:
Emerging evidence supports an association between exposure to ambient air pollution particulate matter (PM), neuroinflammation, and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Basic science and population-level studies point to traffic-related aerosols as being causally linked to adverse health outcomes. Such aerosols are enriched in ultrafine particles (UFP, <100 nm). Our current understanding of the mechanisms by which UFPs contribute to extrapulmonary health effects at all – and particularly those in the brain – is very limited. Inflammation, innate immune cell activation, and oxidative stress are thought to be of central importance, as is the direct transport of UFPs to the brain. Our previous work has demonstrated that inhaled UFPs can reach the brain via the olfactory nerve, that elevations in hippocampal tau phosphorylation and microglial morphology changes occur, and that learning and memory behavioral deficits occur following short-term exposures to UFP-enriched ambient aerosols. Current work is focused on the role of glymphatic circulation disruption, systemic inflammation, and bioprocessing of particles in the brain to further extend the mechanistic bases by which the central nervous system responds to inhaled pollutants.
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