Building Objective measures of Historical Exposures

摘要

One of the major challenges in assessing the associations between environmental exposures and human disease is the differing response to exposure based on the timing of exposure and the life-stage at which exposures occur. It is well known that many environmental factors exhibit differential effects with chronic as opposed to acute exposures or have differential effects in certain windows of susceptibility. Some environmental factors also exhibit latent effects that manifest only after many years have passed. We, as an exposure science community, have had success in developing technologies that can directly measure acute exposures with very high temporal resolution, and we have long-standing capabilities in measuring integrated exposures over intermediate periods of days to months. Assessing historic exposures, however, remains a critical gap in the field of exposure science. Traditionally, such assessments have relied on modeling and questionnaires based largely on residential and occupational history. More recently, it has become apparent that the use of imaging and other analytical techniques can provide direct measurements of exposures that occurred in the past, often with a degree of temporal resolution. Likewise, certain biological measures such as epigenetic modifications and the resultant lasting changes in gene expression have been shown to be a lasting record specific to environmental exposures which can be used as a surrogate measure of exposure. This talk will highlight NIEHS activities to develop such objective measures of historical exposure and biological indicators as part of our larger efforts in Exposure Science and the Exposome.