Prenatal dietary exposure to mixtures of chemicals is associated with allergy or respiratory diseases in children in the ELFE nationwide cohort

INTRODUCTION

Prenatal exposure to environmental chemicals may be associated with allergies later in life. We aimed to examine the association between prenatal dietary exposure to mixtures of chemicals and allergic or respiratory diseases up to age 5.5 y.

METHODS

We included 11,638 mother-child pairs from the French "Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l'Enfance" (ELFE) cohort. Maternal dietary exposure during pregnancy to eight mixtures of chemicals was previously assessed. Allergic and respiratory diseases (eczema, food allergy, wheezing and asthma) were reported by parents between birth and age 5.5 years. Associations were evaluated with adjusted logistic regressions. Results are expressed as odds ratio (OR[95%CI]) for a variation of one SD increase in mixture pattern.

RESULTS

Maternal dietary exposure to a mixture composed mainly of trace elements, furans and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was positively associated with the risk of eczema (1.10 [1.05; 1.15]), this association was consistent across sensitivity analyses. Dietary exposure to one mixture of pesticides was positively associated with the risk of food allergy (1.10 [1.02; 1.18]), whereas the exposure to another mixture of pesticides was positively but slightly related to the risk of wheezing (1.05 [1.01; 1.08]). This last association was not found in all sensitivity analyses. Dietary exposure to a mixture composed by perfluoroalkyl acids, PAHs and trace elements was negatively associated with the risk of asthma (0.89 [0.80; 0.99]), this association was consistent across sensitivity analyses, except the complete-case analysis.

CONCLUSION

Whereas few individual chemicals were related to the risk of allergic and respiratory diseases, some consistent associations were found between prenatal dietary exposure to some mixtures of chemicals and the risk of allergic or respiratory diseases. The positive association between trace elements, furans and PAHs and the risk of eczema, and that between pesticides mixtures and food allergy need to be confirmed in other studies. Conversely, the negative association between perfluoroalkyl acids, PAHs and trace elements and the risk of asthma need to be further explored.

Prenatal dietary exposure to chemicals and allergy or respiratory diseases in children in the EDEN mother-child cohort

INTRODUCTION

Maternal exposure to food chemicals may increase the risk of allergy and respiratory disorders in offspring. We aimed to assess the association of prenatal dietary exposure to single chemicals and chemical mixtures with allergy or respiratory events reported before age 8 y in children.

METHODS

We included 1428 mother-child pairs enrolled in the EDEN mother-child cohort. Maternal dietary exposure to 209 chemicals and eight associated mixtures was investigated. Allergic and respiratory diseases (wheezing, asthma, allergic rhinitis, eczema and food allergy) were reported by parents between birth and age 8 y. Associations with the studied outcomes were evaluated with three approaches based on adjusted logistic regression, estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). First, food chemicals were considered individually, with correction for multiple testing. Second, chemicals selected by elastic net regression were considered simultaneously in a multiple exposure model. Third, predefined mixtures were introduced in the same adjusted logistic regression. Results are expressed as odds ratio (OR[95 % CI]).

RESULTS

Prenatal single exposure to 74 food chemicals was associated with higher risk of allergic rhinitis. Prenatal single exposure to 11 chemicals was associated with higher risk of wheezing. In the multi-exposure approach, risk of wheezing was associated with the pesticides diazinon and triadimenol, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 5-methylchrysene. Phytoestrogen resveratrol was negatively associated with lower risk of both wheezing and allergic rhinitis, and mycotoxin monoacetoxyscirpenol was negatively associated with risk of eczema. Finally, a chemical mixture composed mainly of trace elements, furans and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, was associated with higher risk of allergic rhinitis (1.33 [1.02;1.73]).

CONCLUSION

Prenatal dietary exposure to chemicals was associated with risk of allergic rhinitis or wheezing up to age 8 y. A few chemicals were associated with other allergic and respiratory diseases. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Abstract 1448: Novel specific susceptibility loci identified for pediatric and adult ependymoma in first histology-specific genome-wide association study

Despite extensive research, a small proportion of the variants contributing to the genetic architecture of brain tumors have been reported. The published GWAS have been largely performed on pooled histological subtypes of glioma and most of these studies have been conducted primarily for adult tumors. Therefore, we aimed to perform the first GWAS specifically for ependymoma to identify the genetic variants associated with the risk of these tumors and to investigate the similarities/differences between the genetic architectures of adult and pediatric ependymomas.

Germline SNP-array data of ependymoma cases were obtained from nine studies or biobanks across the United States and Europe. Controls were randomly selected with the ratio of 10:1 from three of those studies and a separate publicly available database. Additionally, germline whole genome sequencing data on cases and controls from St Jude Cloud were utilized. In total, 483 pediatric cases and 265 adult cases and 5592 controls were included. The same quality control procedures were applied to all studies. Data were imputed based on the Haplotype Reference Consortium using EAGLE. Meta-analyses were performed based on GMMAT and logistic regression. The results were adjusted for sex, ancestry and PCs. PAINTOR was used to identify the plausible causal variants, and eQTL and gene enrichment analyses were performed.

We identified 16 independent significant SNPs which were specifically associated with pediatric ependymoma risk, of which 10 SNPs were plausible causal. The significant variants were located on 1q32.2 (KCNH1), 2p14 (MEIS1-AS3), 4p15.32 (LDB2), 6p21.32 (HLA-DQA), 6p21.33 (BX927178/CR759828), 7p21.3 (UMAD1), 11p12 (LRRC4C), 11q24.2 (KRT18P59), 14q24.3 (SPTLC2), and 21q11.2 (LOC112268283/FEM1AP1). The 18 identified independent significant SNPs associated with risk of adult ependymoma were located on 4p16.1 (SORCS2), 6p11.2, 6p21.31(KCTD20), 6p21.32 (HLA-DQA1), 7q31.32, 8p23.1 (LOC157273), 8q24.3 (PLEC), 10p13 (PTER), 11q23.3 (GRIK4), 19q13.11 (CEP89), and 22q11.1 (XKR3), of which 8 variants were plausible causal. One intronic variant associated with susceptibility of both pediatric and adult ependymomas was detected; rs68160486 (CCDC85A 2p16.1 PPediatric=3.41x10-8, PAdult=2.12x10-8).

The genetic architectures of adult and pediatric ependymomas appear to largely differ from one another. We identified novel variants for these tumors that have not been previously reported for GWAS of combined glioma subtypes. This analysis highlights the need to conduct additional GWAS of more refined glioma subtypes, perhaps even utilizing newer data on molecularly defined subtypes that are emerging in updated pathological classification schemes.

Citation Format: Maral Adel Fahmideh, Spiridon Tsavachidis, Stephen C. Mack, Xiao Xiangjun, Terri S. Armstrong, Mark R. Gilbert, NCI-Connect, iPSYCH Consortium, GICC, Lisa Mirabello, Smita Bhatia, Wendy M. Leisenring, Lindsay M. Morton, Gregory T. Armstrong, Jon Foss-Skiftesvik, Christian M. Hagen, Jonas Bybjerg-Grauholm, Manel Ghozal, Audrey Bonaventure, Jacqueline Clavel, Melissa L. Bondy, Christopher I. Amos, Michael E. Scheurer. Novel specific susceptibility loci identified for pediatric and adult ependymoma in first histology-specific genome-wide association study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 1448.

Organic Food Consumption During the Complementary Feeding Period and Respiratory or Allergic Diseases Up to Age 5.5 Years in the ELFE Cohort

Objectives: To assess (1) whether a history of allergy is associated with feeding with organic foods (OFs) during the complementary feeding period and (2) whether OF consumption in infancy is related to the incidence of respiratory and allergic diseases up to age 5.5 years.

Study Design: Analyses involved more than 8,000 children from the nationwide Étude Longitudinale Française depuis l'Enfance (ELFE) birth cohort. Associations between family or infant history of allergy and frequency of OF consumption during the complementary feeding period were assessed with multinomial logistic regression. Associations between OF consumption in infancy and respiratory or allergic diseases between age 1 and 5.5 years were assessed with logistic regression.

Results: A family history of allergy or cow's milk protein allergy at age 2 months was strongly and positively related to feeding with OF during the complementary feeding period. Feeding with OF during the complementary feeding period was not related to respiratory diseases or eczema up to age 5.5 years. Compared to infrequent consumption of both organic and commercial complementary foods, frequent OF consumption without commercial complementary foods was associated with a higher risk of food allergy, whereas frequent commercial complementary food consumption without OF use was associated with a lower risk of food allergy.

Conclusions: This study suggests that a history of allergy strongly affects feeding with OF during the complementary feeding period. However, OF consumption was not associated with reduced odds of food allergy later in childhood but could be associated with increased odds, which should be examined more deeply.