Field Of Environmental Health Sciences Research Articles

PIWI-Interacting RNA (piRNA) and Epigenetic Editing in Environmental Health Sciences.

PURPOSEOF REVIEW: The epigenome modulates gene expression in response to environmental stimuli. Modifications to the epigenome are potentially reversible, making them a promising therapeutic approach to mitigate environmental exposure effects on human health. This review details currently available genome and epigenome editing technologies and highlights ncRNA, including piRNA, as potential tools for targeted epigenome editing. RECENT FINDINGS: Zinc finger nuclease (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) associated nuclease (CRISPR/Cas) research has significantly advanced genome editing technology, with broad promise in genetic research and targeted therapies. Initial epigenome-directed therapies relied on global modification and suffered from limited specificity. Adapted from current genome editing tools, zinc finger protein (ZFP), TALE, and CRISPR/nuclease-deactivated Cas (dCas) systems now confer locus-specific epigenome editing, with promising applicability in the field of environmental health sciences. However, high incidence of off-target effects and time taken for screening limit their use. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT: ncRNA serve as a versatile biomarker with well-characterized regulatory mechanisms that can easily be adapted to edit the epigenome. For instance, the transposon silencing mechanism of germline PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNA) could be engineered to specifically methylate a given gene, overcoming pitfalls of current global modifiers. Future developments in epigenome editing technologies will inform risk assessment through mechanistic investigation and serve as potential modes of intervention to mitigate environmentally induced adverse health outcomes later in life.

Environmental Aldehyde Sources and the Health Implications of Exposure.

Aldehydes, which are present within the air as well as food and beverage sources, are highly reactive molecules that can be cytotoxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic. To prevent harm from reactive aldehyde exposure, the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) metabolizes reactive aldehydes to a less toxic form. However, the genetic variant of ALDH2, ALDH2*2, significantly reduces the ability to metabolize reactive aldehydes in humans. Therefore, frequent environmental aldehyde exposure, coupled with inefficient aldehyde metabolism, could potentially lead to an increased health risk for diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular disease.Here, we discuss the environmental sources of reactive aldehydes and the potential health implications particularly for those with an ALDH2*2 genetic variant. We also suggest when considering the ALDH2*2 genetic variant the safety limits of reactive aldehyde exposure may have to be reevaluated. Moreover, the ALDH2*2 genetic variant can also be used as an example for how to implement precision medicine in the field of environmental health sciences.

Neurotoxicity Mechanism of Environmental Chemicals and Its Evaluation System

It is pivotal to assess the toxicity and safety of chemicals, including medicines, in the research field of environmental health science. Here we introduce neurotoxic mechanisms in mammals of environmental organotin and Parkinson's disease-related chemicals. We clarified that low concentrations of tributyltin decrease α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type glutamate receptor subunit GluA2 (GluR2) expression, leading to the vulnerability of cultured neurons. That is, tributyltin reduces GluA2 prior to neuronal death. This GluA2 decrease can be used as a sensitive evaluation index of neurotoxicity, since low levels of certain chemicals, for example some agrochemicals, decrease GluA2 expression. We also elucidated the mechanisms of abnormal protein metabolism induced by low levels of two Parkinson's disease-related chemicals: 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium ion (MPP+) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline derivatives. It is expected that these findings will become clues in accurately evaluating the toxicity of chemicals and/or in investigating the causes of disease.

Theodora (Theo) Colborn: 1927-2014.

Theodora Colborn, research scientist and environmental activist, died 14 December 2014 at the age of 87. As the scientist who coined the term “endocrine disruptor,” Theo—as we had the privilege to call her—played a watershed role in the field of environmental health science, particularly in raising public awareness of the effects of chemical contaminants on human health and the environment. It is no exaggeration to say that endocrine disruption science brought about a sea change in how we consider chemical safety and that Theo was instrumental in bringing about this paradigm shift.

Pulling Back the Curtain: Improving Reviews in Environmental Health

Pulling Back the Curtain: Improving Reviews in Environmental Health

China Should Increase Fundamental Research on Environmental Health

Basic research is the frontier of environmental health. It is the intersection between the charted and uncharted territories of this field, where theoretical and practical breakthrough achievements may take place and where key scientific problems urgently need resolution. Scientific experiments and theoretical work to seek new knowledge, theories, and mechanisms will play a key role in the development of environmental health science. However, fundamental research in China on environmental health is both lacking and late in getting started, in large part because scientific research has historically focused on the study of external environmental factors and the measurement of environmental pollutant concentrations. Not until the mid-1970s, when research gradually combined the environment and health, were there any major scientific studies in China; although this was a step in the right direction for environmental health science, this line of research unfortunately took several years to progress, with little apparent effectiveness. The emergence of this situation has shown that, ultimately, the importance of fundamental research on environmental health has yet to be recognized and has not been given due attention. There are records documenting the relationship between humans and the environment from ancient times in China. “The Inner Canon of Huangdi” presented a viewpoint of man and earth that is quite similar to the “body–environment interaction” argument of today. This knowledge of ancient China has been practiced and passed down for thousands of years, and still holds theoretical value for guiding or promoting the development of environmental health science today. Such theories, however, are merely a summary of practical experience and are only hypotheses (or assumptions) until they are substantiated by scientific experimentation. The recent rise of molecular biology, the rapid advancement of the Human Genome Project, and the implementation of the U.S. Environmental Genome Project to define “body–environment interactions” has paved the way to important and effective means of research. In particular, the discovery of environmental response genes has provided effective targets for research, and has suggested molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways to explain effects of environmental chemicals. This has not only provided insight regarding body–environment interactions but has also accelerated the research process and launched studies of gene–environment interactions. The development of environmental health science has also been enhanced by new discoveries resulting from the integration of genetic and molecular biology research methods. Therefore, the “harmony between man and nature” theory of ancient China can now be proven by modern scientific experiments. The wide variety of chemical pollutants in a productive and living environment impacts the health of humans in extremely complicated and harmful ways. Approximately 85,000 synthetic chemicals have entered the marketplace in the past 50 years, with another 1,500 new chemicals being introduced each year. The impact on human health of the vast majority of these products has not been studied. Even the level of toxicity and the mechanisms involved are unknown; therefore, the relationship between these chemicals and human health is far from clear. With the current implementation of the Environmental Genome Project, a new and arduous task has been put forward for environmental health researchers to study environment-related disease pathogenesis. Researchers in the field of environmental health will study such content whether it is relevant to a poisoning mechanism or disease pathogenesis, and the study thereof may help explain why some people in the same environment are poisoned or afflicted with disease while others are not. With the depth of the Environmental Genome Project, this long-standing mystery will gradually be solved; for example, recent research shows that susceptibility to both acute poisonings and chronic diseases may be related to gene polymorphisms that affect the metabolic conversion of environmental pollutants. However, there are many more questions in the field of environmental health science for which we need basic biological research studies in order to reveal its difficulties, questions, and most challenging mysteries.

A New Venue for the Director’s Perspective

A New Venue for the Director’s Perspective

Interim Editors Bring Breadth of Experience

Vol. 115, No. 3 PerspectivesOpen AccessInterim Editors Bring Breadth of Experience Kenneth S. Korach Kenneth S. Korach Search for more papers by this author Published:1 March 2007https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.115-a124AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit As many of you are aware, Jim Burkhart retired as editor-in-chief of EHP in January of this year. Jim did an exceptional job of guiding the journal, and under his leadership EHP saw a rise in impact factor that now ranks the journal in first place in two categories of scientific publications: environmental sciences and public, environmental, and occupational health. Jim also believed strongly in the importance of EHP ’s news section and its use in international environmental health, and worked to maintain these efforts. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself, Matthew P. Longnecker, and Steven R. Kleeberger as the interim editor-in-chief and deputy editors, respectively, of EHP, and share with you our intentions for the journal during our editorial tenure, while a formal editor-in-chief is selected.As some background, I currently serve as program director of the Environmental Diseases and Medicine Program, chief of the Laboratory of Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology, and chief of the Receptor Biology Section at the NIEHS. My research areas of interest include the basic mechanisms of estrogen hormone action in a variety of responsive tissues, with an application toward understanding how hormonally active environmental estrogens influence physiological processes; the role of the estrogen receptor in mediating hormonal responses; the estrogen receptor’s role in hormonal responsiveness during early development; the coupling of growth factor and nuclear receptor signaling pathways; and estrogen carcinogenesis and toxicity. I have been an editor and editor-in-chief of Endocrinology, the flagship journal of the American Endocrine Society.Matt Longnecker is a board-certified internist with a doctorate in epidemiology who serves as a senior investigator in the Epidemiology Branch of the NIEHS. Matt’s early research focused on diet and cancer, especially the relationship of alcohol consumption to the risk of breast cancer. His current research program focuses on the health effects of early-life exposure to environmental agents. Matt serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Epidemiology, Environmental Research, and Epidemiology, and served for five years as an associate editor for the Annals of Epidemiology.Steve Kleeberger serves as chief of the Laboratory of Respiratory Biology and director of the Environmental Genetics research group at the NIEHS. He is the principal investigator for the Director’s Challenge Program “Mechanisms of Susceptibility to Oxidative Stress–Induced Disease.” Steve’s research focuses on identifying genes that determine susceptibility to environmental lung disease. His work has led to the identification of significant susceptibility quantitative trait loci and functional characterization of candidate genes for susceptibility to lung injury induced by environmental pollutants. Steve’s laboratory is also focused on gene–environment interaction in human populations, and the pathogenesis of disease including coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, respiratory syncytial virus infection and chronic lung disease in infants, and acute respiratory distress syndrome in acute lung injury patients. Steve has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency regarding susceptible subpopulations and airborne pollutants. He has held a number of editorial positions, and is currently a reviewer for more than 20 peer-reviewed journals.Through our various research endeavors, all of us have come to value EHP as an important voice and source for the field of environmental health science. During our tenure, journal operations will continue under EHP ’s established principles and policies, including particularly those addressing competing financial interests. We will continue to objectively and critically triage manuscripts, to work to reduce the time to first decision, and to provide a fair and objective review process for all manuscripts. We are investigating mechanisms for improving the manuscript submission and review process, and we will work to implement more effective reliance on EHP ’s editorial boards. Most importantly, we are dedicated to maintaining the high scientific quality and rigor of EHP, and the overall value of the journal and its programs to the environmental health science community.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 115, No. 3 March 2007Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 March 2007Published in print1 March 2007 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

EHP : A Home at the NIEHS

<i>EHP</i> : A Home at the NIEHS

Considering a Society of Environmental Health Science

Considering a Society of Environmental Health Science

Guest Editorial: Norton Nelson’s Legacy: The Science of Environmental Health

The field of environmental health science is now a recognized and respected branch of science in American and worldwide academia. One of the pioneers who had a major role in the establishment of environmental health as a true scientific discipline was Norton Nelson, the founder and first chair of the Department and the Institute of Environmental Medicine at New York University (NYU), which now bears his name. Among his many accomplishments, he played a leading role in the formulation of legislation that created the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (Lippmann 2001). We would like to remind readers of some of the basic principles that Nelson and other pioneers of the new discipline invoked in order to establish environmental health science as an important discipline and to overcome barriers to acceptance of the field as a true science by those in other disciplines.

Environmental Genomics: An Opportunity for the NIEHS

Environmental Genomics: An Opportunity for the NIEHS

Training the Next Generation

Training the Next Generation

New perspectives on the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in environmental health sciences

AbstractAt first glance, the domain of health is no typical area to applicate Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Nevertheless, the recent development clearly shows that also within the domains of environmental health, disease ecology and public health GIS have become an indispensable tool for processing, analysing and visualising spatial data. In the field of geographical epidemiology, GIS are used for drawing up disease maps and for ecological analysis. The striking advantages of GIS for the disease mapping process are the considerably simplified generation and variation of maps as well as a broader variety in terms of determining areal units. In the frame of ecological analysis, GIS can significantly assist with the assessment of the distribution of health-relevant environmental factors via interpolation and modelling. On the other hand, the GIS-supported methods for the detection of striking spatial patterns of disease distribution need to be much improved. An important topic in this respect is the integration of the time dimension. The increasing use of remote sensing as well as the integration into internet functionalities will stimulate the application of GIS in the field of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS). In future, the integration and analysis of health-relevant data in one single data system will open up many new research opportunities.