The effect of low molecular weight-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons responsive hsa_circ_0039929/hsa-miR-15b-3p_R-1/FGF2 circuit on inflammatory response of A549 cells via the PI3K/AKT pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transition process

Association of urinary metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with urinary incontinence in adults: A cross-sectional study

This study aims to investigate the association between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) metabolites and urinary incontinence (UI) in the general adult population. This study analyzed six urinary PAH metabolites in the general adult population from the 2005-2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). UI was distinguished into stress UI (SUI), urgency UI (UUI), mixed UI (MUI), and any UI by self-reported questionnaires. Multiple logistic regression, restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression, and quantile g-computation (QG-C) were applied to assess the association between PAHs (individual and mixture exposure) and the prevalence of UI. A total of 8,136 participants were included in our study. The participants had a median age of 45.9 years, and 48.7 % of individuals were female. Most ln-transformed PAHs were positively and linearly related to the prevalence of SUI and any UI in women (P < 0.05). Increasing prevalence of SUI was associated with the highest quantiles of 3-hydroxyfluorene (3-FLU) (OR = 1.72, 95%CI = 1.27-2.33, P for trend = 0.002), 2-hydroxyfluorene (2-FLU) (OR = 1.75, 95%CI = 1.29-2.38, P for trend = 0.008), and 1-hydroxypyrene (1-PYR) (OR = 1.44, 95%CI = 1.05-1.96, P for trend = 0.012) compared with the lowest quantiles in women. The mixture of urinary PAH metabolites was significantly associated with an increased prevalence of SUI (OR = 1.09, 95%CI: 1.01-1.19, P = 0.038) in women. Urinary 2-FLU had the greatest positive contribution to the overall effect, while 2-hydroxynapthalene (2-NAP) was the major negative contributor. Our study demonstrated that mixture exposure to PAHs is associated with the prevalence of SUI in adult women, which might be primarily driven by 2-FLU.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure and arterial stiffness-related plasma miRNAs: A panel study

The underlying mechanisms between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure and arterial stiffness are poorly understood. We carried out a panel study involving three repeated surveys to examine the associations of individual and mixture of PAHs exposure with arterial stiffness-related miRNAs among 123 community adults. In linear mixed-effect (LME) models, we found that urinary 9-hydroxyfluorene (9-OHFlu), 2-hydroxyphenanthrene (2-OHPh), 9-hydroxyphenanthrene (9-OHPh) at lag 0 day were positively linked to miR-146a and/or miR-222. The Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) analyses revealed positive overall associations of PAHs mixture at lag 0 day with miR-146a and miR-222, and urinary 9-OHFlu contributed the most. In addition, an inter-quartile range (IQR) increase in urinary 9-OHFlu at lag 0 day was associated with elevated miR-146a and miR-222 by 0.16 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.30) to 0.34 (95% CI: 0.13, 0.54). Accordingly, exposure to PAHs, especially 9-OHFlu at lag 0 day, was related to elevated arterial stiffness-related plasma miRNAs.

Effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on cancer risk causally mediated via vitamin D levels

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) widely exist in environmental substrates and are closely related to individual circulating vitamin D levels and tumorigenesis. Therefore, we proposed to evaluate the relationship between PAH exposure, vitamin D, and the risks for 14 cancer types via a causal inference framework underlying the mediation analysis. We evaluated seven urine monohydroxylated PAH (OH-PAH) and serum vitamin D concentrations of 3306 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between the 2013 and 2016 survey cycles and measured PAH concentrations in 150 subjects from the Nanjing cohort. We observed a significant negative dose-response relationship between increased OH-PAH levels and vitamin D deficiency. Each unit increase in ∑OH-PAHs could lead to a decrease in vitamin D levels (βadj  = -0.98, Padj  = 2.05 × 10-4 ). Body mass index could have interaction effects with ∑OH-PAHs and affect vitamin D levels. Coexposure to naphthalene and fluorene metabolites mutually affected vitamin D levels. Notably, vitamin D could causally mediate the relationship between OH-PAHs and nine types of cancer (e.g., colorectal cancer, liver cancers, etc.). This study first emphasizes the causal cascade of individual OH-PAHs, vitamin D, and cancer risk, providing insights into prevention via the environment.