PM2.5 exposure associated with microbiota gut-brain axis: Multi-omics mechanistic implications from the BAPE study

作者：Tiantian Li, Jianlong Fang, Song Tang, Hang Du, Liang Zhao, Yanwen Wang, Fuchang Deng, Yuanyuan Liu, Yanjun Du, Liangliang Cui, Wanying Shi, Yan Wang, Jiaonan Wang, Yingjian Zhang, Xiaoyan Dong, Ying Gao, Yu Shen, Dong Li, Huichan Zhou, Qinghua Sun, Haoran Dong, Xiumiao Peng, Yi Zhang, Meng Cao, Hong Zhi, Jingyang Zhou, Xiaoming Shi · 发表于：The Innovation · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1016/j.xinn.2022.100213 · 被引用次数：62 · 研究领域：Air Quality and Health Impacts、Climate Change and Health Impacts、Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research

Recent studies have shown that PM 2.5 may activate the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis by inducing hormonal changes, potentially explaining the increase in neurological and cardiovascular risks. In addition, an association between PM 2.5 and gut microbiota and metabolites was established. The above evidence represents crucial parts of the gut-brain axis (GBA). In view of this evidence, we proposed a hypothesis that PM 2.5 exposure may affect the HPA axis through the gastrointestinal tract microbiota pathway (GBA mechanism), leading to an increased risk of neurological and cardiovascular diseases. We conducted a real-world prospective repeated panel study in Jinan, China. At each visit, we measured real-time personal PM 2.5 and collected fecal and blood samples. A linear mixed-effects model was used to analyze the association between PM 2.5 and serum biomarkers, gut microbiota, and metabolites. We found that PM 2.5 was associated with increased serum levels of hormones, especially the adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol, which are reliable hormones of the HPA axis. Gut microbiota and tryptophan metabolites and inflammation, which are important components of the GBA, were significantly associated with PM 2.5 . We also found links between PM 2.5 and changes in the nervous and cardiovascular outcomes, e.g., increases of 19.77% (95% CI: −36.44, 125.69) in anxiety, 1.19% (95% CI: 0.65, 1.74) in fasting blood glucose (FBG), 2.09% (95% CI: 1.48, 2.70) in total c...