United States – A new research has found that individuals frequently exposed to a large amount of polluted air are expected to have an increased level of amyloid plaque in their brain, a symptom recognized as being a part of Alzheimer’s disease.
High-traffic areas
Prior to death, seniors who lived in areas with high concentrations of traffic-related particle pollutants (PRP) were found to be almost double more likely to have more amyloid plaques compared to those who did not live in such places, outcomes indicate.
Their exposure was three times higher in the last three years before death, which made them 87% more prone to risky plaque levels, researchers added, as reported by The Associated Press.
“These results add to the evidence that fine particulate matter from traffic-related air pollution affects the amount of amyloid plaque in the brain,” said researcher Anke Huels, an assistant professor of epidemiology with Emory University in Atlanta. However, it wasn’t proved in the findings that Alzheimer’s is actually caused by air pollution, only that there is an association.
Brain Tissue Analysis
To investigate this matter, scientists looked at brain tissue samples of 224 individuals who donated their brains after death for dementia studies. The average life expectancy of the people turned out to be 76.
Amyloid Plaque Presence
The research team quantified the amyloid plaque and tau tangle levels in the brain of subjects, the two major markers of Alzheimer’s, as reported by The Associated Press.
They then concentrated on the amount of air pollution in the home addresses of the patients, all of whom stayed in or around Atlanta.
The researchers found that high exposure to air pollution is strong evidence for the presence of more amyloid plaques.
However, the association was irrespective of the existence of the main gene variant that is mainly linked to the increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, which is APOE e4.
Call for Further Research
Those with this gene variant did not have a correlation between air pollution and Alzheimer’s, and the strongest correlation was found among the participants that had this gene variant, according to the researchers, as reported by The Associated Press.
“This suggests that environmental factors such as air pollution could be a contributing factor to Alzheimer’s in patients in which the disease cannot be explained by genetics,” Huels said in a journal news release. “More research is needed to investigate the mechanisms behind this link.”