Allergy, Climate, and Exposomics Lab
The Allergy, Climate, and Exposomics (ACE) Lab studies how environmental exposures impact our immune system and our overall health. We research these topics through the lens of climate change, the number one threat to global public health.
651 Huntington Avenue
FXB Building, Room 101
Boston, MA 02115
Air pollution disrupts Inflammasome Regulation in HEart And Lung Total Health (AirHealth)
About AirHealth
Funded by P01HL152953
Exposure to air pollution from forest fires and automobile exhaust is a rapidly growing global public health burden that contributes to cardiopulmonary pathogenesis. Biomarkers in the blood, such as interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), are key to the inflammatory response and are associated with acute and chronic inflammation upon exposure to pollutants.
Understanding the mechanisms of the IL-1β and other pathways will significantly benefit cardiopulmonary health since therapies are available to block this pathway and since knowledge of direct mechanisms of how air pollution leads to cardiopulmonary diseases is needed to shape policy in public health.
Led by Kari Nadeau, the “Air pollution disrupts Inflammasome Regulation in HEart And Lung Total Health (AIRHEALTH)” grant aims to:
- Describe the mechanisms underlying heart, lung, and immune diseases associated with air pollution (e.g. PM2.5) exposure. We will identify and characterize biomarkers of acute and chronic environmental exposure to air pollution that predict cardiopulmonary diseases.
- Ensure the efforts of the three scientific projects and project cores will be synergistic, coordinated, and integrated.
- Provide a highly interactive, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary team of investigators and resources to support our goals.
Our goal is to define the mechanistic links of lung and heart diseases with IL-1β and other pathways, which will likely lead to clinical applications of biologicals and other drugs in individuals exposed to acute and/or chronic air pollution.
Projects and Cores
Project 1 tests the hypothesize that air pollution exposure induces circulating and cellular cytokines such as IL-1β and other pathways through epigenetic mechanisms and immune cell activation, leading to direct and indirect activation of lung epithelial cells, contributing to chronic lung disease.
Project 2 tests the hypothesis that IL-1β or other pathways induce a gene/protein/metabolite expression response that plays a role in the pathophysiology of air pollution-linked immune system activation.
Project 3 aims to establish 3-D engineered heart tissue (EHT) models for the study of air pollution- related cardiovascular risks from a racially diverse group of individuals; elucidate the pathological remodelling mechanisms of EHT in response to PM2.5 treatment with functional and omics analysis; and perform drug testing on EHTs and validate the effects of FDA approved drugs in prevention of air pollution-related cardiovascular risks.
The goals of the HEMC are to manage and process biomarker samples, define the multidimension biomarker profile of pollutant exposure, and to provide state of the art assays for epigenic modifications relevant to pollutant exposure.
The goals of the DMAC are to establish and maintain a secure centralized system to house, share, and manage data; design robust studies; and analyze clinical, mechanistic, and high-throughput data for the three PPG projects.
Meet the Team
Manisha Desai
Francois Haddad
Maya Kasowski
Ronglih Liao
Holden Maecker
Joseph Wu
Publications
Zhou X, Simonin EM, Jung YS, Galli SJ, Nadeau KC. Role of allergen immunotherapy and biologics in allergic diseases. Curr Opin Immunol. 2024 Dec;91:102494. doi: 10.1016/j.coi.2024.102494. Epub 2024 Oct 1. PMID: 39357079; PMCID: PMC11609009.
Panganiban RA, Nadeau KC, Lu Q. Pyroptosis, gasdermins and allergic diseases. Allergy. 2024 Sep;79(9):2380-2395. doi: 10.1111/all.16236. Epub 2024 Jul 14. PMID: 39003568; PMCID: PMC11368650.
Leap SR, Soled DR, Sampath V, Nadeau KC. Effects of extreme weather on health in underserved communities. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024 Jul;133(1):20-27. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.04.018. Epub 2024 Apr 21. PMID: 38648975; PMCID: PMC11222027.
Chandy M, Hill T 3rd, Jimenez-Tellez N, Wu JC, Sarles SE, Hensel E, Wang Q, Rahman I, Conklin DJ. Addressing Cardiovascular Toxicity Risk of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems in the Twenty-First Century: “What Are the Tools Needed for the Job?” and “Do We Have Them?”. Cardiovasc Toxicol. 2024 May;24(5):435-471. doi: 10.1007/s12012-024-09850-9. Epub 2024 Mar 31. PMID: 38555547; PMCID: PMC11485265.
Abo KM, Merritt C, Basil MC, Lin SM, Cantu E, Morley MP, Bawa P, Gallagher M, Byers DE, Morrisey EE, Wilson AA. Pulmonary Cellular Toxicity in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Chest. 2024 Sep;166(3):472-479. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2024.02.013. Epub 2024 Feb 14. PMID: 38360172.
Choma EF, Robinson LA, Nadeau KC. Adopting electric school buses in the United States: Health and climate benefits. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 May 28;121(22):e2320338121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2320338121. Epub 2024 May 20. PMID: 38768355; PMCID: PMC11145267.
Zhou X, Sampath V, Nadeau KC. Effect of air pollution on asthma. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024 Apr;132(4):426-432. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.01.017. Epub 2024 Jan 20. PMID: 38253122; PMCID: PMC10990824.
Yang JY, Mondéjar-Parreño G, Jahng JWS, Lu Y, Hamburg N, Nadeau KC, Conklin DJ, Liao R, Chandy M, Wu JC. Elucidating effects of the environmental pollutant benzo[a]pyrene [BaP] on cardiac arrhythmogenicity. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2024 Apr 20;191:23-26. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2024.04.013. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38648962.
Agache, I., Akdis, C., Akdis, M., Al-Hemoud, A., Annesi-Maesano, I., Balmes, J., Cecchi, L., Damialis, A., Haahtela, T., Haber, A.L., Hart, J.E., Jutel, M., Mitamura, Y., Mmbaga, B.T., Oh, J., Ostadtaghizadeh, A., Pawankar, R., Prunicki, M., Renz, H., Rice, M.B., Filho, N., Sampath, V., Skevaki, C., Thien, F., Traidl-Hoffmann, C., Wong, G.W.K., Nadeau, K.C. (2024). Immune-mediated disease caused by climate change-associated environmental hazards: mitigation and adaptation. Frontiers in Science, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2024.1279192
Chandy, M., Nishiga, M., Wei, T., Hamburg, N., Nadeau, K., Wu, J. (2024). Adverse Impact of Cannabis on Human Health. Annual Review of Medicine, 75(1), 353-367. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-med-052422-020627
Gould, C.F., Heft-Neal, S., Johnson, M., Aguilera, J., Burke, M., Nadeau, K. (2024). Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke Exposure. Annual Review of Medicine, 75, 277-292. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-med-052422-020909
Horne, B., Johnson, M., Blagev, D., Haddad, F., Knowlton, K., Bride, D., Bair, T., Joy, E., Nadeau, K. (2024). Association of Short-term Increases in Ambient Fine Particulate Matter With Hospitalization for Asthma or COPD During Wildfire Season and Other Time Periods. Published online March 28, 2024. Chest. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chpulm.2024.100053
Aguilera, J., Kaushik, A., Cauwenberghs, N., Heider, A., Ogulur, I., Yazici, D., Smith, E., Alkotob, S., Prunicki, M., Akdis, C.A., Nadeau, K.C. (2023). Granzymes, IL-16, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 increase during wildfire smoke exposure. J Allergy Clin Immunol Glob, 2(2), 100093. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacig.2023.100093
Aguilera J., Konvinse K., Lee A., Maecker H., Prunicki M., Mahalingaiah S., Sampath V., Utz P.J., Yang E., Nadeau K. (2023). Air pollution and pregnancy. Semin Perinatol, 47(8), 151838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semperi.2023.151838
Kline, O., Pruniki, M. (2023). Climate change impacts on children’s respiratory health. Curr Opin Pediatr, 35(3), 350-355. https://doi.org/10.1097/MOP.0000000000001253
Lee A.S., Aguilera J., Efobi J.A., Jung Y.S., Seastedt H., Shah M.M., Yang E., Konvinse K., Utz P.J., Sampath V., Nadeau K. (2023). Climate change and public health: The effects of global warming on the risk of allergies and autoimmune diseases: The effects of global warming on the risk of allergies and autoimmune diseases. EMBO Rep, 24(4), e56821. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.202356821
Pali-Schöll, I., Hermuth-Kleinschmidt, K., Dramburg, S., Agache, I., Mayerhofer, H., Jensen-Jarolim, E., Goshua, A., Nadeau, K.C. (2023). An EAACI review: Go green in health care and research. Practical suggestions for sustainability in clinical practice, laboratories, and scientific meetings. Allergy, 78(10), 2606-2622. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.15836
Sampath, V., Aguilera, J., Prunicki, M., Nadeau, K.C. (2023). Mechanisms of climate change and related air pollution on the immune system leading to allergic disease and asthma. Semin Immunol, 67(101765). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smim.2023.101765
Seastedt, H., Nadeau, K. (2023). Factors by which global warming worsens allergic disease. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol, 131(6), 694-702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2023.08.610
Zetlen HL, Cao KT, Schichlein KD, Knight N, Maecker HT, Nadeau KC, Rebuli ME, Rice MB. Comparison of multiplexed protein analysis platforms for the detection of biomarkers in the nasal epithelial lining fluid of healthy subjects. J Immunol Methods. 2023 Jun;517:113473. doi: 10.1016/j.jim.2023.113473. Epub 2023 Apr 12. PMID: 37059295; PMCID: PMC10715563.
Zhang, K., Brook, R.D., Li, Y., Rajagopalan, S., Kim, J.B. (2023). Air Pollution, Built Environment, and Early Cardiovascular Disease. Circ Res, 132(12), 1707-1724. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.123.322002
Abo, K.M., Sainz de Aja, J., Lindstrom-Vautrin, J., Alysandratos, K.D., Richards, A., Garcia-de-Alba, C., Huang, J., Hix, O.T., Werder, R.B., Bullitt, E., Hinds, A., Falconer, I., Villacorta-Martin, C., Jaenisch, R., Kim, C.F., Kotton, D.N., Wilson, A.A. (2022). Air-liquid interface culture promotes maturation and allows environmental exposure of pluripotent stem cell-derived alveolar epithelium. JCI Insight, 7(6), e155589. https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.155589
Agache, I., Sampath, V., Aguilera, J., Akdis, C.A., Akdis, M., Barry, M., Bouagnon, A., Chinthrajah, S., Collins, W., Dulitzki, C., Erny, B., Gomez, J., Goshua, A., Jutel, M., Kizer, K.W., Kline, O., LaBeaud, A.D., Pali-Schöll, I., Perrett, K.P., Peters, R.L., Plaza, M.P., Prunicki, M,. Sack, T., Salas, R.N., Sindher, S.B., Sokolow, S.H., Thiel, C., Veidis, E., Wray, B.D., Traidl-Hoffmann, C., Witt, C., Nadeau, K.C. (2022). Climate change and global health: A call to more research and more action. Allergy, 77(5), 1389-1407. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.15229
Aguilera J., Han X., Cao S., Balmes J., Lurmann F., Tyner T., Lutzker L., Noth E., Hammond S.K., Sampath V., Burt T., Utz P.J., Khatri P., Aghaeepour N., Maecker H., Prunicki M., Nadeau K. (2022). Increases in ambient air pollutants during pregnancy are linked to increases in methylation of IL4, IL10, and IFNγ. Clinical Epigenetics, 14(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13148-022-01254-2
Bae, H.R., Chandy, M., Aguilera, J., Smith, E.M., Nadeau, K., Wu, J., Paik, D.T. (2022). Adverse effects of air pollution‐derived fine particulate matter on cardiovascular homeostasis and disease. Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, 32(8), 487-498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcm.2021.09.010
Chandy, M., Obal, D., Wu, J.C. (2022). Elucidating effects of environmental exposure using human-induced pluripotent stem cell disease modeling. EMBO Mol Med, 14(11), e13260. https://doi.org/10.15252/emmm.202013260
Goshua, A., Akdis, C.A., Nadeau, K.C. (2022). World Health Organization global air quality guideline recommendations: Executive summary. Allergy, 77(7), 1955-1960. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.15224
Jung, Y.S., Sampath, V., Prunicki, M., Aguilera, J., Allen, H., LaBeaud, D., Veidis, E., Barry, M., Erny, B., Patel, L., Akdis, C., Akdis, M., Nadeau, K. (2022). Characterization and regulation of microplastic pollution for protecting planetary and human health. Environ Pollut, 315(120442). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120442
Sampath, V., Nadeau, K.C., Ebi, K.L., Narvaez, D., Tessema, M.T., Pak-Gorstein, S., Darmstadt, G.L. (2022). Improving planetary health is integral to improving children’s health-a call to action. Pediatr Res. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-02432-x
Sauler, M., McDonough, J.E., Adams, T.S., Kothapalli, N., Barnthaler, T., Werder, R.B., Schupp, J.C., Nouws, J., Robertson, M.J., Coarfa, C., Yang, T., Chioccioli, M., Omote, N., Cosme, C Jr., Poli, S., Ayaub, E.A., Chu, S.G., Jensen, K.H., Gomez, J.L., Britto, C.J., Raredon, M.S.B., Niklason, L.E., Wilson, A.A., Timshel, P.N., Kaminski, N., Rosas, I.O. (2022). Characterization of the COPD alveolar niche using single-cell RNA sequencing. Nat Commun, 13(1), 494. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28062-9
Alkotob, S.S., Cannedy, C., Harter, K., Movassagh, H., Paudel, B., Prunicki, M., Sampath, V., Schikowski, T., Smith, E., Zhao, Q., Traidl-Hoffmann, C., Nadeau, K.C. (2020). Advances and novel developments in environmental influences on the development of atopic diseases. Allergy, 75(12):3077-3086. https://doi.org/10.1111/all.14624
Kim, J.B., Prunicki, M., Haddad, F., Dant, C., Sampath, V., Patel, R., Smith, E., Akdis, C., Balmes, J., Snyder, M.P., Wu, J.C., Nadeau, K.C. (2020). Cumulative Lifetime Burden of Cardiovascular Disease From Early Exposure to Air Pollution. Journal of the American Heart Association, 9(6):e014944. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.014944
Wheatley, L.M., Wood, R., Nadeau, K., Liu, A., Zoratti, E., Bacharier, L., Brittain, E., Calderon, M., Casale, T., Chipps, B., Cox, L., Creticos, P.S., Desai, M., Dreborg, S., Durham, S., Gergen, P.J., Gruchalla, R., Nelson, H., O’Hehir, R.E., Plaut, M., Schwaninger, J.M., Tilles, S., Vickery, B., Wittenberg, K.M., Togias, A. (2019). Mind the gaps: clinical trial concepts to address unanswered questions in aeroallergen immunotherapy. An NIAID/AHRQ Workshop. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical lmmunology, 143(5):1711-1726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2019.01.032
Abstracts and Presentations
Lin, X., Zhang, X., Wu, J.C., Nadeau, K.C., and Snyder, M.P. (2024). A mass spectrometry-based scalable workflow for exposome research. Poster presented at 72nd ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics at Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California, June 4, 2024.
Single-Cell Exposomics from Fire Smoke Exposure: Linking Novel Multi-Omics with Machine Learning to Unlock Lung Pathophysiology. Presented at ATS 2024, in San Diego, CA, May 22, 2024.
Horne, B.D., Haddad, F., Joy, E.A., Kim, J.B., Anderson, J.L., Prunicki, M., Bride, D., Bair, T.L., Nadeau, K.C., Knowlton, K.U. (2023). Abstract 12409: Ambient Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone Air Pollution Are Differentially Associated With Hospitalization for Unstable Angina and Acute Myocardial Infarction During Wildfire and Inversion Seasons. Circulation, 148(Suppl_1). https://doi.org/10.1161/circ.148.suppl_1.12409
Horne, B.D., Haddad, F., Joy, E.A., Prunicki, M., Anderson, J.L., Kim, J.B., Bride, D., Bair, T.L., Nadeau, K.C., Knowlton, K.U. (2023). Abstract 12441: Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution but Not Ozone is Associated With Elevated Risk of All-Cause Hospitalization in Patients With a Prior Diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation. Circulation, 148(Suppl_1). https://doi.org/10.1161/circ.148.suppl_1.12441
Jung, Y.S., Prunicki, M., Burke, M., Heft-Neal, S., Bondy, M.L., Chinthrajah, R.S., Cullen, M.R., Sampath, V., Nelson, L., Nadeau, K.C. (2023). Abstract 1343996: GH31A-1046: Wildfire-specific PM2.5 is associated with mental health and pregnancy-related outcomes during the 2020 California fires. Poster presented at AGU23, December 13, 2023.
Lin, X., Zhang, X., Michael, B., Wong, F., Prunicki, M., Nadeau, K.C., Snyder, M.P. (2023). Mapping the exposome of firefighters through the lens of mass spectrometry. Poster presented at the 71st American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) 2023 Conference in Houston, TX, June 4 – 8, 2023.
Yildirima, Z., Melesioa, J., Kojica, A., Mullena, M., Bonilauria, B., Wu, J. (2022). Adverse Effects of PM2.5 on hiPSC-derived Cardiac Cells. Poster presented at Stanford-Cornell Cardiovascular Research Symposium, November 28-29, 2022.