The global accumulation of pollution, as a result of industrialization and urbanization, has been met with some of the greatest challenges humanity has yet to overcome. Pollutants in air, terrestrial, and aquatic environments have been attributed to wide ranges of detrimental effects to human health. Air pollution alone has been estimated to be responsible for over 8 million annual deaths worldwide. Exposure to polluted aerosols results in the development of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and lung cancer, as well as miscarriages, and premature births. At the same time, dermal contact with pollutants also has been linked to skin cancer, atopic dermatitis, skin aging, psoriasis, amongst other cutaneous conditions. Also, chemical polluting contaminants may persist in food and crops due to soil and water pollution, leading to the accumulation of toxins in humans. Such far-reaching undesirable health consequences as a result of pollution exposure call for increased attention on the mechanisms by which different pollutants in the environment cause diseases in humans.
Recent multi-omics technological advances have illuminated the importance of the human microbiome in health and diseases. Associations between various diseases and the dysbiosis of the human microbiome are testaments to the importance of the microbial community in modulating host health. Concomitantly, the microbiome is influenced by the host’s environmental surroundings and lifestyles. Given the importance of the human microbiome, the close-knit relationship between the human microbiome and its adjacent environment, and the importance of pollution exposure for human health, it is conceivable that some of the detrimental effects of pollution on human health may exert its effects via modulating the human microbiome.
In this special issue, we explore the potential connections between environmental pollution, the human microbiome, and health and disease. We hope that the creation of this special issue will ultimately lead to increased awareness and appreciation to use the human microbiome to help tackle the detrimental health effects brought on by pollution exposure.
The special issue welcomes submissions of original research articles, reviews, and perspective pieces that pertain to how urban pollution may play roles in shaping the human microbiome under biomedical and/or ecological contexts. In particular, the submitted works should attempt to, based on any one or more of the multi-omics technologies (amplicon/shotgun metagenomics, meta-transcriptomics, metabolomics, meta-proteomics) to examine and characterize how air, water, soil/land, or waste pollution may influence microbial assemblages on human hosts, and how these influences may lead to diseases. Submission of research articles that include the collection of environmental and pollution metadata, and the integration of metadata and omics data to identify links between pollution exposure and the microbiome are encouraged. Original work involving the benchmarking of methodologies with applications in improving detection of urban pollutants and its roles in the human microbiome are also appreciated. Finally, we also advocate the submission of works relating to how the human microbiome may potentially respond or adapt to urban pollution exposure to help minimize or reverse the detrimental effects pollution has on human hosts.
The global accumulation of pollution, as a result of industrialization and urbanization, has been met with some of the greatest challenges humanity has yet to overcome. Pollutants in air, terrestrial, and aquatic environments have been attributed to wide ranges of detrimental effects to human health. Air pollution alone has been estimated to be responsible for over 8 million annual deaths worldwide. Exposure to polluted aerosols results in the development of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and lung cancer, as well as miscarriages, and premature births. At the same time, dermal contact with pollutants also has been linked to skin cancer, atopic dermatitis, skin aging, psoriasis, amongst other cutaneous conditions. Also, chemical polluting contaminants may persist in food and crops due to soil and water pollution, leading to the accumulation of toxins in humans. Such far-reaching undesirable health consequences as a result of pollution exposure call for increased attention on the mechanisms by which different pollutants in the environment cause diseases in humans.
Recent multi-omics technological advances have illuminated the importance of the human microbiome in health and diseases. Associations between various diseases and the dysbiosis of the human microbiome are testaments to the importance of the microbial community in modulating host health. Concomitantly, the microbiome is influenced by the host’s environmental surroundings and lifestyles. Given the importance of the human microbiome, the close-knit relationship between the human microbiome and its adjacent environment, and the importance of pollution exposure for human health, it is conceivable that some of the detrimental effects of pollution on human health may exert its effects via modulating the human microbiome.
In this special issue, we explore the potential connections between environmental pollution, the human microbiome, and health and disease. We hope that the creation of this special issue will ultimately lead to increased awareness and appreciation to use the human microbiome to help tackle the detrimental health effects brought on by pollution exposure.
The special issue welcomes submissions of original research articles, reviews, and perspective pieces that pertain to how urban pollution may play roles in shaping the human microbiome under biomedical and/or ecological contexts. In particular, the submitted works should attempt to, based on any one or more of the multi-omics technologies (amplicon/shotgun metagenomics, meta-transcriptomics, metabolomics, meta-proteomics) to examine and characterize how air, water, soil/land, or waste pollution may influence microbial assemblages on human hosts, and how these influences may lead to diseases. Submission of research articles that include the collection of environmental and pollution metadata, and the integration of metadata and omics data to identify links between pollution exposure and the microbiome are encouraged. Original work involving the benchmarking of methodologies with applications in improving detection of urban pollutants and its roles in the human microbiome are also appreciated. Finally, we also advocate the submission of works relating to how the human microbiome may potentially respond or adapt to urban pollution exposure to help minimize or reverse the detrimental effects pollution has on human hosts.