Unique Resource For identifying new biomarkers of environmental exposures in early life

 Researchers now have a unique resource for identifying new biomarkers of environmental exposures in early life and understanding their health effects. This is thanks to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by "la Caixa" Foundation, which systematically documented all associations between a wide range of early life exposures and molecular profiles at different levels, including the epigenome (DNA methylation), transcriptome (gene expression) and metabolome (metabolites). The findings, which are part of the EU-funded ATHLETE project, have been published in Nature Communications and Our health depends greatly on the environment we live in. In fact, 70 -90% of the risk of developing a disease is determined by our exposome: a multitude of environmental factors (i.e. non-genetic factors) to which we are exposed throughout our life. And yet, we still have limited knowledge on which are these environmental hazards, how they interact, and what biological processes they trigger.

Early life is a particularly important period, since exposures during these developmentally vulnerable periods may have pronounced effects at the molecular level, which may not be Clinically detectable until adulthood."

Martine Vrijheid, Head of the Childhood and Environment Programme at ISGlobal

In this study, the research team led by Vrijheid aimed to associate multiple chemical, outdoor, social and lifestyle exposures (92 in pregnancy and 116 when the children were 6-11 years old), with molecular profiles in the same children (DNA methylation and gene transcription in blood, plasma proteins, and metabolites in serum and urine). The analysis included 1,301 mother-child pairs of the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project, a long-term cohort study in six European countries (Spain, UK, France, Lithuania, Norway and Greece).publicly available