The use of biomarkers of exposure, early effect and susceptibility for the study of the relationship between environment and human health: from basic research to health policy. We carried out a brief review of studies investigating human effects of environmental exposures which made use of biomarkers of exposure, internal dose and biological effect, with particular regard to air pollution. Among biomarkers of early effect, we have focused the recently developed techniques for investigating gene expression, known as “omics”: genomic (study of genome), transcriptomic (study of transcriptome, including mRNAs), proteomic (study of proteome, the protein output encoded by the genome) and epigenomic (study of structural reversible modifications of DNA), the last one including three mechanisms of activation/ inactivation of genes and their products, i.e. DNA methylation, histone modifications and micro-RNA regulations. Although the studies using these techniques are still far from providing conclusive evidences, they may be useful for validating systems of environmental and biological monitoring, integrating risk assessment procedures and supporting evidence-based decisions of public health policy for reducing the harmful effects of environmental exposures.

L'impiego di biomarcatori di esposizione, effetto precoce e suscettibiltà per lo studio dei rapporti tra ambiente e salute: dalla ricerca di base alle politiche per la salute .

DONATO, Francesco;ZANI, Claudia;FILISETTI, Barbara;TONINELLI, Giuseppe;FERETTI, Donatella;COVOLO, Loredana
2013-01-01

Abstract

The use of biomarkers of exposure, early effect and susceptibility for the study of the relationship between environment and human health: from basic research to health policy. We carried out a brief review of studies investigating human effects of environmental exposures which made use of biomarkers of exposure, internal dose and biological effect, with particular regard to air pollution. Among biomarkers of early effect, we have focused the recently developed techniques for investigating gene expression, known as “omics”: genomic (study of genome), transcriptomic (study of transcriptome, including mRNAs), proteomic (study of proteome, the protein output encoded by the genome) and epigenomic (study of structural reversible modifications of DNA), the last one including three mechanisms of activation/ inactivation of genes and their products, i.e. DNA methylation, histone modifications and micro-RNA regulations. Although the studies using these techniques are still far from providing conclusive evidences, they may be useful for validating systems of environmental and biological monitoring, integrating risk assessment procedures and supporting evidence-based decisions of public health policy for reducing the harmful effects of environmental exposures.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11379/457661
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