Air pollution and climate change are potential drivers for the increasing burden of allergic diseases. The molecular mechanisms by which air pollutants and climate parameters may influence allergic ...diseases, however, are complex and elusive. This article provides an overview of physical, chemical and biological interactions between air pollution, climate change, allergens, adjuvants and the immune system, addressing how these interactions may promote the development of allergies. We reviewed and synthesized key findings from atmospheric, climate, and biomedical research. The current state of knowledge, open questions, and future research perspectives are outlined and discussed. The Anthropocene, as the present era of globally pervasive anthropogenic influence on planet Earth and, thus, on the human environment, is characterized by a strong increase of carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides, and combustion- or traffic-related particulate matter in the atmosphere. These environmental factors can enhance the abundance and induce chemical modifications of allergens, increase oxidative stress in the human body, and skew the immune system toward allergic reactions. In particular, air pollutants can act as adjuvants and alter the immunogenicity of allergenic proteins, while climate change affects the atmospheric abundance and human exposure to bioaerosols and aeroallergens. To fully understand and effectively mitigate the adverse effects of air pollution and climate change on allergic diseases, several challenges remain to be resolved. Among these are the identification and quantification of immunochemical reaction pathways involving allergens and adjuvants under relevant environmental and physiological conditions.
Summary Introduction Recent evidence implicates a cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. Because vagus nerve activity mediates some heart rate variability (HRV), this qualitative review examines the ...literature concerning circulating cytokines and HRV in cardiovascular function in humans. This qualitative review examines the literature concerning circulating cytokines and HRV in cardiovascular function in humans. Methods Thirteen studies on HRV, inflammation, and cardiovascular function were located by electronic library search and descriptively reviewed. Results The relationship between HRV and inflammation was studied in healthy controls, patients with acute or stable coronary heart disease (CHD), patients with metabolic syndrome or impaired glucose tolerance and patients with kidney failure. Investigations focused mainly on Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive peptide (CRP). The majority of reviewed studies reported that parasympathetic nervous system tone as inferred from heart rate variability is inversely related to inflammatory markers ( r values between −0.2 and −0.4). The relationships with inflammatory markers were similar whether derived from ECG signals as short as 5–30 min or from 24-h ECG readings for HRV analyses. While inflammatory markers appear to be related to HRV, it is a mistake to assume that the traditional “vagal measures” of HRV (such as high frequency heart rate variability) are the driving factors. Indeed, low frequency heart rate variability, a complex measure reflecting both parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, is the more commonly associated measure linked to inflammatory markers. Discussion Heart rate variability is inversely correlated with inflammatory markers in healthy individuals as well as in those with cardiovascular diseases.
The importance of sleep to health and cardiovascular disease has become increasingly apparent. Sleep-disordered breathing, sleep duration, and sleep architecture may all influence metabolism and ...neurohormonal systems, yet no previous study has evaluated these sleep characteristics concurrently in relation to incident hypertension. Our objective was to determine whether incident hypertension is associated with polysomnography measures of sleep-disordered breathing, sleep duration, and sleep architecture in older men. Participants were 784 community-dwelling, ambulatory men ≥65 years of age (mean age75.1±4.9 years) from the Outcomes of Sleep Disorders in Older Men Study who did not have hypertension at the time of their in-home polysomnography sleep studies (2003–2005) and who returned for follow-up (2007–2009). Of 784 older men included in this report, 243 met criteria for incident hypertension after a mean follow-up of 3.4 years. In unadjusted analyses, incident hypertension was associated with increased hypoxemia, increased sleep stages N1 and N2, and decreased stage N3 (slow wave sleep SWS). After adjustment for age, nonwhite race, study site, and body mass index, the only sleep index to remain significantly associated with incident hypertension was SWS percentage (odds ratio for lowest to highest quartile of SWS1.83 95% CI1.18 to 2.85). No attenuation of this association was seen after accounting for sleep duration, sleep fragmentation, and indices of sleep-disordered breathing. Percentage time in SWS was inversely associated with incident hypertension, independent of sleep duration and fragmentation, and sleep-disordered breathing. Selective deprivation of SWS may contribute to adverse blood pressure in older men.
For decades, we have known that chemicals affect human and wildlife behavior. Moreover, due to recent technological and computational advances, scientists are now increasingly aware that a wide ...variety of contaminants and other environmental stressors adversely affect organismal behavior and subsequent ecological outcomes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. There is also a groundswell of concern that regulatory ecotoxicology does not adequately consider behavior, primarily due to a lack of standardized toxicity methods. This has, in turn, led to the exclusion of many behavioral ecotoxicology studies from chemical risk assessments. To improve understanding of the challenges and opportunities for behavioral ecotoxicology within regulatory toxicology/risk assessment, a unique workshop with international representatives from the fields of behavioral ecology, ecotoxicology, regulatory (eco)toxicology, neurotoxicology, test standardization, and risk assessment resulted in the formation of consensus perspectives and recommendations, which promise to serve as a roadmap to advance interfaces among the basic and translational sciences, and regulatory practices.
The “dark matter of life” describes microbes and even entire divisions of bacterial phyla that have evaded cultivation and have yet to be sequenced. We present a genome from the globally distributed ...but elusive candidate phylum TM6 and uncover its metabolic potential. TM6 was detected in a biofilm from a sink drain within a hospital restroom by analyzing cells using a highly automated single-cell genomics platform. We developed an approach for increasing throughput and effectively improving the likelihood of sampling rare events based on forming small random pools of single-flow–sorted cells, amplifying their DNA by multiple displacement amplification and sequencing all cells in the pool, creating a “mini-metagenome.” A recently developed single-cell assembler, SPAdes, in combination with contig binning methods, allowed the reconstruction of genomes from these mini-metagenomes. A total of 1.07 Mb was recovered in seven contigs for this member of TM6 (JCVI TM6SC1), estimated to represent 90% of its genome. High nucleotide identity between a total of three TM6 genome drafts generated from pools that were independently captured, amplified, and assembled provided strong confirmation of a correct genomic sequence. TM6 is likely a Gram-negative organism and possibly a symbiont of an unknown host (nonfree living) in part based on its small genome, low-GC content, and lack of biosynthesis pathways for most amino acids and vitamins. Phylogenomic analysis of conserved single-copy genes confirms that TM6SC1 is a deeply branching phylum.
PURPOSE OF REVIEWThe sympathetic nervous system (SNS) mediates short-term increases in blood pressure. Evidence that psychosocial stress leads to chronic hypertension is mixed. The SNS activation ...found in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), caregiving for a severely demented spouse, and obesity more specifically address whether SNS activation might lead to the metabolic syndrome and hypertension.
RECENT FINDINGSObesity is associated with both increased SNS electrical activity and plasma norepinephrine. This is partly because of frequent OSA among the obese, but OSA does not fully explain SNS activation in obesity. Large stresses activate adrenal epinephrine release, but both animal and human studies indicate that epinephrine decreases aspects of the metabolic syndrome. On the other hand, norepinephrine is chronically elevated in OSA and among markedly stressed caregivers, and they have an increased incidence of hypertension. This is most striking in OSA, which causes a nocturnal diuresis. Hypertensive patients with OSA are resistant to the antihypertensive effects of diuretics, but respond to drugs that block SNS activity and the effects of renin.
SUMMARYThe SNS may mediate chronic blood pressure increases in response to specific stresses and alter responses to therapy. Evidence linking psychosocial stress to hypertension is mixed.
Animals confront thermoregulatory constraints that define species ranges, impact productivity, and limit their ability to cope with long-term environmental change. Marine poikilothermic species are ...assumed to have a body temperature comparable to ambient temperatures as well as possess a limited ability to behaviorally regulate body temperature. Winter flounder Pseudopleuronectes americanus is a migratory species with a complex life history that places it in environments that exceed the species’ thermal tolerance. To determine if winter flounder use temperature refuge during seasonally cold and warm periods, we evaluated internal body temperature relative to water temperature, utilizing acoustic telemetry in a southern New England estuary. The internal body temperature of individuals commonly exceeded that of ambient water during the winter, and conversely, remained lower than ambient water during the summer. During a 3 mo trial, Kalman filter time series analysis indicated that internal body temperatures of winter flounder exhibited greater similarity to sediment temperature recorded at depths of 3, 6 and 9 cm compared to water temperature, indicating that winter flounder use burial as a strategy for thermoregulation. Such discoveries have the potential to transform our understanding of the complex interaction between environmental conditions and behavior, providing critical insight into phenomena that underpin species’ life history strategies.
Winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) have declined to less than 11% of their historical abundance in offshore areas and have experienced severe declines and inbreeding in coastal ...subpopulations. Understanding metapopulation structure and disparate migratory behavior is vital to understanding the species’ dynamics. We used acoustic telemetry to evaluate migratory types, homing behavior, and spawning behavior in adult winter flounder (n = 72) in Mattituck Creek, New York. Telemetry results showed that 17% of the tagged individuals displayed resident behavior and remained in the creek year-round despite mean summer temperatures reaching 28 °C. Alternatively, the migratory group (∼83%) started to leave the system when the mean water temperature reached 12 °C. A dominant driver of migration was not indicated; instead, migration out of or into the creek appeared complex and related to date, temperature, lunar cycle, photoperiod, and year. Approximate spawning was estimated to occur as early as November and continued through April based on aggregative behaviors of adults and back-calculations of dates using young-of-the-year otoliths. Our results support the emerging view that winter flounder’s dynamics reflect local life history and population diversity, which are currently unaccounted for in management.
Dementia caregiving is associated with elevations in depressive symptoms and increased risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This study evaluated the efficacy of the Pleasant Events Program (PEP), ...a 6-week Behavioral Activation intervention designed to reduce CVD risk and depressive symptoms in caregivers. One hundred dementia family caregivers were randomized to either the 6-week PEP intervention (N = 49) or a time-equivalent Information-Support (IS) control condition (N = 51). Assessments were completed pre- and post-intervention and at 1-year follow-up. Biological assessments included CVD risk markers Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and D-dimer. Psychosocial outcomes included depressive symptoms, positive affect, and negative affect. Participants receiving the PEP intervention had significantly greater reductions in IL-6 (p = .040), depressive symptoms (p = .039), and negative affect (p = .021) from pre- to post-treatment. For IL-6, clinically significant improvement was observed in 20.0% of PEP participants and 6.5% of IS participants. For depressive symptoms, clinically significant improvement was found for 32.7% of PEP vs 11.8% of IS participants. Group differences in change from baseline to 1-year follow-up were non-significant for all outcomes. The PEP program decreased depression and improved a measure of physiological health in older dementia caregivers. Future research should examine the efficacy of PEP for improving other CVD biomarkers and seek to sustain the intervention's effects.
•We studied Behavioral Activation (BA) therapy for reducing depression and CVD risk.•Dementia caregivers were randomized to BA or information-support (IS) therapy.•BA therapy showed promise for reducing depression and IL-6, a biomarker of CVD risk.•This study is novel in showing efficacy of BA for psychological and physical health.•BA therapy is brief and straightforward, allowing for community implementation.
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