Airborne Pollutants as Triggers of Parkinson's Disease via the Olfactory System
Abstract
In this multidisciplinary project, we proposed to examine the central hypothesis that ambient air pollutants contribute to Parkinsons disease (PD) development by initiating and/or exacerbating alpha-synuclein pathology at olfactory structures via inflammation. In the epidemiologic arm, we plan to investigate 1) the effect of long-term exposure to air pollutants on olfactory impairment (OI); 2) whether early PD pathogenesis is exacerbated by ambient air pollutants; and 3) whether lifetime use of ibuprofen modifies potential adverse effects of air pollutants on OI. The project will leverage ten years of extensive data collection on environmental exposures, medical history, and biospecimen from the well-established Sister Study of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Importantly, we proposed to objectively evaluate the sense of smell of approximately 3,400 Sister Study participants, using the brief smell identification test, efficiently administered by mail. We collected data between March 2018 and March 2019. Of the 4,020 eligible participants, 3,535 (87.9%) have provided some data and 3,431 (85.3%) returned the smell test kit. In May 2019, we shipped DNA samples to NIA for genotyping, expecting completion late in 2019 or early in 2020. We have also performed analyses using interim data to understand the outcomes and to develop analytic programs. We received complete dataset from our field team at NIEHS/SSS in August 2019. We are currently checking data integrity and expect to update our data analyses previously conducted based on interim dataset.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1094089
Entities
People
- Honglei Chen
Organizations
- Michigan State University