Perturbation of metabolic pathways mediates the association of air pollutants with asthma and cardiovascular diseases.

Background: Epidemiologic evidence indicates common risk factors, including air pollution exposure, for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, suggesting the involvement of common altered molecular pathways. Objectives: The goal was to find intermediate metabolites or metabolic pathways that could be associated with both air pollutants and health outcomes (“meeting-in-the-middle”), thus shedding light on mechanisms and reinforcing causality. Methods: We applied a statistical approach named ‘meet-in-the-middle’ to untargeted metabolomics in two independent case-control studies nested in cohorts on adult-onset asthma (AOA) and cardio-cerebrovascular diseases (CCVD). We compared the results …