IMPACT

Air pollution is a major public health problem in urban areas.
In addition to the direct consequences of inhalation of air pollutants on the cardiorespiratory system and premature death, prenatal exposure is associated with an increased risk of developing psychiatric and cognitive disorders. However, sensitivity to air pollution varies from one individual to another, depending on genetic background. Damage to the central nervous system has been studied mainly in human epidemiological studies, but these are often limited by personal history and retrospective assessment. Moreover, they generally fail to determine how pollutants affect brain development. Animal models, on the other hand, allow perfect control of exposure conditions and reproducibility of experiments. However, most of the models proposed to date are limited to acute exposure to a high dose of a single pollutant, and are unable to reproduce human exposure to inhaled air pollution. In addition, animal studies generally focus on isogenic mouse strains, without modeling genetic diversity-dependent variations in sensitivity.

The aim of this project is therefore to address these limitations, by assessing the impact of air pollution on brain development, on genetic backgrounds associated with psychiatric-type behaviors. The team in charge of the program has developed the first polygenic animal models of psychiatric disorders.
The ambition is to provide evidence that genetic background plays a role in the effects of air pollution exposure on brain function and behavior. This could lead to the identification of genetic markers, which could be useful for prevention and raising awareness among the general public and political decision-makers.

Inserm