{"doi":"10.1101/2023.06.15.23291452","title":"Association between Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease among a Cognitively Healthy Population-based Cohort","abstract":"Abstract Background Epidemiological evidence suggests air pollution adversely affects cognition and increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but little is known about the biological effects of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) on early predictors of future disease risk. Objectives We investigated the association between 1, 3, and 5-year exposure to ambient and traffic-related PM 2.5 and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from 1,113 cognitively healthy adults (aged 45-75 years) from the Emory Healthy Brain Study in Georgia, USA. CSF biomarker concentrations of Aβ 42 , tTau, and pTau, were collected at enrollment (between 2016-2020) and analyzed with the Roche Elecsys system. Annual ambient and traffic-related residential PM 2.5 concentrations were estimated at a 1km and 250m resolution, respectively, and 3- and 5-year average exposures were computed for each participant based on time of specimen collection. Associations between PM 2.5 and CSF biomarker concentrations, considering continuous and dichotomous (dichotomized at clinical cut-offs for AD-biomarker positivity) outcomes, were estimated with multiple linear/logistic regression, respectively, controlling for potential confounders (age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and neighborhood socioeconomic status). Results Interquartile range (IQR; IQR=0.845) increases in 1-year [β: -0.101; 95%-confidence interval (CI): -0.18, -0.02] and 3-year (β: -0.078; 95%-CI: -0.15, -0.00) ambient fine PM 2.5 exposures were negatively associated with Aβ 42 CSF concentrations. Associations between ambient PM 2.5 and Aβ 42 were similar for 5-year estimates, but not significant (β: -0.076; 95%-CI: -0.160, 0.005). Dichotomized CSF variables revealed similar and significant associations between ambient PM 2.5 and Aβ 42 . Associations with traffic-related PM 2.5 were similar but not significant. PM 2.5 exposures were not associated with tTau, pTau, tTau/Aβ 42 , or pTau/Aβ 42 levels at enrollment. Conclusion In our cross-sectional study, PM 2.5 exposure was associated with a significant decrease in CSF Aβ 42 which suggests an accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain and an increased risk of developing AD.","journal":"medRxiv","year":2023,"id":399878,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9542,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":344399,"name":"Zhenjiang Li","orcid":"0000-0002-4806-6231","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":239774,"name":"Donghai Liang","orcid":"0000-0001-7311-2298","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":239777,"name":"Stefanie Ebelt","orcid":"0000-0003-4713-2337","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":68010,"name":"Allan I. Levey","orcid":"0000-0002-3153-502X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107095,"name":"James J. Lah","orcid":"0000-0002-8810-620X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107092,"name":"Thomas S. Wingo","orcid":"0000-0002-7679-6282","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":464301,"name":"Anke Hüls","orcid":"0000-0002-6005-417X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1176223,"name":"Emma Casey","orcid":"0009-0006-4303-4755","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":37,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:20:00.023537Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}