MicroRNAs as biomarkers of harmful environmental and occupational exposures: a systematic review

Abstract

Environmental exposure is a growing public health burden associated with several negative health effects. An estimated 4.2 million deaths occur each year from ambient air pollution alone. Biomarkers that reflect specific exposures have the potential to measure the real integrated internal dose from all routes of complex environmental exposure. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression, have been studied as biomarkers in various diseases and have also shown potential as environmental exposure biomarkers. Here, we review the available human epidemiological and experimental evidence of miRNA expression changes in response to specific environmental exposures including airborne particulate matter. In doing so, we establish that miRNA exposure biomarker development remains in its infancy and future studies will need to carefully consider biological and analytical ‘design rules’ in order to facilitate clinical translation.

Keywords:

• Air pollution
• biomarker
• environmental exposure
• heavy metals
• microRNA
• organic compounds
• particulate matter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (grant 19-382 07247S to MK) and by ERD Funds, project CePaVip OPVVV (No. 384 CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000759 to MK).