Tiny air pollution particles have been found in the brain stems of young people and are intimately associated with molecular damage linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
If the groundbreaking discovery is confirmed by future research, it would have worldwide implications, because 90 percent of the global population live with unsafe air.
Medical experts are cautious about the findings and said that while the particles are a likely cause of the damage, whether this leads to disease later in life remains to be seen.
There is already good statistical evidence that higher exposure to air pollution increases rates of neurodegenerative diseases, but the significance of the new study is that it shows a possible physical mechanism by which the damage is done.
The researchers found abundant pollution particles in the brain stems of 186 young people from Mexico City who had died suddenly between the ages of 11 months and 27 years.
They are likely to have reached the brain after being inhaled into the bloodstream, or via the nose or gut.
The particles were closely associated with abnormal proteins that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.
The aberrant proteins were not seen in the brains of age-matched people from less polluted areas, they said.
“It is terrifying because, even in the infants, there is neuropathology in the brain stem,” said Barbara Maher, a professor at Lancaster University, UK, and part of the research team. “We can’t prove causality so far, but how could you expect these nanoparticles containing those metal species to sit inert and harmless inside critical cells of the brain? That’s the smoking gun — it seriously looks as if those nanoparticles are firing the bullets that are causing the observed neurodegenerative damage.”
Maher said that it was important to study children as they have not experienced other factors associated with dementia, such as alcohol consumption: “So they become the canaries in the coalmine.”
The research was led by Lilian Calderon-Garciduena at the University of Montana and was published in the journal Environmental Research.
It found that the metal-rich particles matched the shape and chemical composition of those produced by traffic, through combustion and braking friction, and which are abundant in the air of Mexico City and many other cities.
Maher said that it was critical that action is taken, in particular measuring the number of particles to which people are exposed. Usually only the overall weight of particles smaller than 2.5 microns is measured.
“If you measure it, and you understand where the problem is greatest, then you can start to do something,” she said. “Policymakers must take account of these findings and actually begin to work out how we can reduce as much of this exposure to air pollution as possible.”
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