International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

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Novel Biomarkers to Assess the Health Effects of Occupational and Environmental Exposure

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Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, the number of toxic substances on the market is increasing day by day. This fact has resulted in the whole population being chronically exposed to these chemicals, becoming one of the main social problems concerns within the scientific community due to their possible impact on public health. The problem increases when the exposure comes from an occupational environment. Working conditions, in some cases not following codes of good practices, involve additional exposure to that which is strictly necessary, leading to human health effects over the medium to long term.

The assessment of health effects due to chronic exposure to chemicals could be performed by identifying several specific biomarkers that may be predictive since they would be altered before the clinical manifestation (at sub-clinical or pre-clinical level). The use of novel biomarkers allows us to relate them to biochemical indicators of early toxic effects on target organs, as well as non-specific toxic effects, such as markers of oxidative stress. This relation also allows establishing a direct cause–effect relationship between chronic exposure and specific functional and organic alterations (molecular, biochemical, cellular, etc.) before the onset of disease symptoms.

According to that, all potential contributors are encouraged to submit original research and review papers on novel biomarkers for the assessment of the impact of chronic occupational or environmental exposure to any toxic substance on human health. These contributions are open to any area related to this topic.

Dr. David Lozano-Paniagua
Prof. Dr. Maria del Mar Requena Mullor
Prof. Dr. Raquel Alarcón
Guest Editors

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Keywords

biomarkers
toxicity
environmental exposure
occupational exposure
public health
epidemiology

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Research

11 pages, 1911 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Altered the lncRNA Expression Profile in Human Lung Cells

by Ying Ma, Jiaqi Shi, Yi Zhang, Zhangjian Chen and Guang Jia

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(2), 1059; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20021059 - 6 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1516

Abstract

Respiration is considered to be the main occupational or environmental exposure pathway of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂ NPs), and the lung is considered to be the target organ of respiratory exposure; however, the mechanism of respiratory toxicity is not fully understood. In this study, the effect of TiO₂ NPs on the expression profile of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) in bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) was investigated to understand their potential toxic mechanism. BEAS-2B cells were treated with 100 μg/mL TiO₂ NPs for 48 h, then RNA sequencing was performed to screen the differential lncRNAs compared with the control group, and the enrichment pathways of the differentially expressed lncRNAs were further analyzed using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The results identified a total of 45,769 lncRNAs, and 277 different lncRNAs were screened. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the targeted mRNAs of these different lncRNAs were enriched in the pyrimidine metabolism pathway. This work demonstrates that TiO₂ NPs could alter the lncRNA expression profile in BEAS-2B cells, and epigenetics may play a role in the mechanism of respiratory toxicity induced by TiO₂ NPs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Biomarkers to Assess the Health Effects of Occupational and Environmental Exposure)

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15 pages, 1980 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Screening of Serum Biomarkers of Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis by Metabolomics Combined with Machine Learning Strategy

by Zhangjian Chen, Jiaqi Shi, Yi Zhang, Jiahe Zhang, Shuqiang Li, Li Guan and Guang Jia

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7051; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127051 - 9 Jun 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2121

Abstract

Pneumoconiosis remains one of the most serious global occupational diseases. However, effective treatments are lacking, and early detection is crucial for disease prevention. This study aimed to explore serum biomarkers of occupational coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) by high-throughput metabolomics, combining with machine learning strategy for precision screening. A case–control study was conducted in Beijing, China, involving 150 pneumoconiosis patients with different stages and 120 healthy controls. Metabolomics found a total of 68 differential metabolites between the CWP group and the control group. Then, potential biomarkers of CWP were screened from these differential metabolites by three machine learning methods. The four most important differential metabolites were identified as benzamide, terazosin, propylparaben and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. However, after adjusting for the influence of confounding factors, including age, smoking, drinking and chronic diseases, only one metabolite, propylparaben, was significantly correlated with CWP. The more severe CWP was, the higher the content of propylparaben in serum. Moreover, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) of propylparaben showed good sensitivity and specificity as a biomarker of CWP. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the serum metabolite profiles in CWP patients changed significantly and that the serum metabolites represented by propylparaben were good biomarkers of CWP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Biomarkers to Assess the Health Effects of Occupational and Environmental Exposure)

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