Objective
The objective of this project is to develop and validate biomarkers of pneumo- and nephrotoxicity resulting from exposure of European populations to urban air pollutants. The project builds open and further develop the results of a previous project supported by the Environment & Climate research programme.
The development and validation of biomarkers that have a sufficient toxicological relevance to be used for health
risk assessment is a key aspect to an effective prevention of environmentally-induced diseases. The present
project represents a further step in this research effort by placing the emphasis on two approaches: first, a
mechanistic approach aimed at identifying those early alterations that reflect a critical step on the development
of an irreversible chemical-induced disease and second, a multi-target organ approach focused on two organs
which are known to be vulnerable to environmental pollutants: the lung and the kidney. The scientific rationale
for this orientation is that chemicals and especially mixtures of chemicals usually can affect several organs
among which it is important to single out the most sensitive one (i.e. the critical organ).
The present project has four main tasks: 1. Complete the batteries of peripheral markers for detecting pneumo and nephrotoxic effects of chemical pollutants. This applies mainly to the lung for which only one peripheral
biomarker of toxicity is presently available (Clara cell protein). 2. Establish the health significance of early
renal or pulmonary effects of environmental pollutants through a biochemical and functional characterisation
of the markers and mechanistic studies exploring their role in pathological processes. 3. Determine whether
effects on the kidney and the respiratory tract induced by some pollutants (e.g. VOCs) are temporarily related
and initiated by (or at least involve at a certain stage) common molecular mechanisms (e.g. involving the
immune system). 4. Assess the early effects of selected pollutants (especially urban air pollutants) on the
respiratory tract and the kidney using validated peripheral biomarkers of toxicity. This last will be pursued
according to two complementary approaches: 1) experimental studies on animals chronically exposed by
inhalation to low levels of selected air pollutants (ozone and N02) and 2) cross-sectional studies on subjects
exposed to urban air pollutants in the European Community.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringair pollution engineering
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
1200 BRUXELLES
Belgium