2024-02-26 03:19:00
Alzheimer’s, risk of dementia even for those who are not predisposed. I study
We need to live in cities that don’t have polluted air or fight to ensure that they don’t! People more exposed to traffic-related air pollution are more likely to have amyloid plaques, the beta-amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, in their brains. This is explained by a study published at the end of February on Neurologythe prestigious medical journal American Academy of Neurology, which examined brain tissue from 224 people. Those who died donated their brains to research to advance dementia analysis.
The people involved all died at an average age of 76 years and even if the number of brains subjected to analysis is not high, the continuity of the presence of the plaques raised alarm. The researchers examined ‘fine particulate matter’, the so-called PM 2.5 which consists of polluting particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter suspended in the air. In summary, the research developed in Atlanta, Georgia, shows that people exposed to traffic-related ‘fine particulate matter’ air pollution have more likely to have high amounts of amyloid plaques in the brain and happens one to three years before death. A result that should alarm anyone who lives in cities and on the busiest streets of urban centers.
“These findings add to the evidence that ‘fine particulate matter’ from traffic-related air pollution affects the amount of amyloid plaque in the brain,” said study author Anke Huels, PhD of Emory University in Atlanta.
The researchers also compared the type of pollution exposure with the specific characteristics of Alzheimer’s signs in the brain. People with exposure greater than 1 µg/m3 to PM 2.5 in the year before death had almost double were more likely to have higher plaque levels, while those with higher exposure in the three years before death were 87% more likely to have higher plaque levels. Older adults were almost twice as likely to have more amyloid plaques.
The researchers also examined whether the main genetic variant associated with Alzheimer’s disease, APOE e4, had any effect on the relationship between air pollution and signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain. They found that the strongest legal among air pollution and the signs of Alzheimer’s occur in subjects whose disease cannot be associated with the genetic variant. The disease, in cases where it cannot be explained by genetics, is accelerated by the environmental context. However, the data should not be read in a simplistic way: the study does not demonstrate that air pollution causes Alzheimer’s.
The study confirms another study also published on Neurologyin October 2022, which reviewed 17 previous works on pollution from ‘particulate matter’ and linking exposure to increased risk of dementia.
The World Health Organization has shown that more than 90% of the world’s population lives in areas with higher than recommended levels of air pollution.
But we must also remember some limitations of the study: the researchers only had the home address of the people at the time of their death to measure air pollution, so it is possible that pollution exposure has been classified inaccurately. Just as it should be remembered that the study involved primarily highly educated white people, so the results may not be representative of other populations.
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