{"id":1501,"date":"2017-01-31T14:19:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T22:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/air-pollution-may-lead-to-dementia-in-older-women\/"},"modified":"2023-11-19T12:18:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T20:18:21","slug":"air-pollution-may-lead-to-dementia-in-older-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/air-pollution-may-lead-to-dementia-in-older-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Air pollution may lead to dementia in older women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Air pollution may lead to dementia in older women<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n Zen Vuong<\/span>\n \n January 31, 2017<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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USC-led study suggests that tiny, dirty airborne particles called PM2.5 invade the brain and wreak havoc.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Tiny air pollution particles \u2014 the type that mainly comes from power plants and automobiles \u2014 may greatly increase the chance of dementia, including Alzheimer\u2019s disease, according to USC-led research.<\/p>\n

Scientists and engineers found that older women who live in places with fine particulate matter exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s standard are 81 percent more at risk for global cognitive decline and 92 percent more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

If their findings hold up in the general population, air pollution could be responsible for about 21 percent of dementia cases, according to the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cMicroscopic particles generated by fossil fuels get into our body directly through the nose into the brain,\u201d said University Professor Caleb Finch at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and co-senior author of the study. \u201cCells in the brain treat these particles as invaders and react with inflammatory responses, which over the course of time, appear to exacerbate and promote Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the link between air pollution and Alzheimer\u2019s disease is a new scientific frontier, we now have evidence that\u00a0air pollution, like tobacco, is dangerous to the aging brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The adverse effects were stronger in women who had the APOE4 gene, a genetic variation that increases the risk for Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study \u2014 the first of its kind conducted in the U.S. \u2014 provides the inaugural scientific evidence of a critical Alzheimer\u2019s risk gene possibly interacting with air particles to accelerate brain aging,\u201d said Jiu-Chiuan Chen<\/a>, co-senior author of the study and an associate professor of preventive medicine<\/a> at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. \u201cThe experimental data showed that exposure of mice to air particles collected on the edge of USC damaged neurons in the hippocampus, the memory center that is vulnerable to both brain aging and Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their study, published Jan. 31 in the Nature<\/em> journal Translational Psychiatry<\/em>, adds to an emerging body of research from around the world that links air pollution to dementia. The offending pollutants \u2014 known as PM2.5 \u2014 are fine, inhalable particles with diameters 2.5 micrometers or smaller. A human hair is about 70 micrometers in diameter, making it 30 times larger than the largest PM2.5.<\/p>\n

The research was a collaboration between USC Davis, the Keck School of Medicine and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.<\/p>\n

Combining human data and lab experiments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The researchers analyzed data of 3,647 65- to 79-year-old women from the Women\u2019s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS). These women lived across 48 states and did not have dementia when they enrolled.<\/p>\n

The researchers adjusted for potential bias associated with geographic region, race or ethnic background, education, socioeconomic status, lifestyle and medical conditions.<\/p>\n

Constantinos Sioutas, the Fred Champion Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at USC Viterbi, invented the technology to collect air particles for controlled exposure of mouse models.<\/p>\n

USC scientists chronically exposed female mice carrying the APOE4 gene to nano-sized air pollution for 15 weeks. Compared to the control group, mice predisposed to Alzheimer\u2019s disease accumulated as much as 60 percent more amyloid plaque, the toxic clusters of protein fragments that further the progression of Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur state-of-the-art aerosol technologies, called particle concentrators, essentially take the air of a typical urban area and convert it to the air of a freeway or a heavily polluted city like Beijing,\u201d said Sioutas, co-author of the study. \u201cWe then use these samples to test exposure and assess adverse neuro-developmental or neuro-degenerative health effects.”<\/p>\n