PR000679 (Project)

Description:Urban environments remain a poorly understood toxic environment for children with asthma, where improved exposure characterization and estimation of exposurehealth outcome relationships are clearly needed. The goal of this project is to investigate the interactions between relevant environmental exposures and asthma severity in a year-long longitudinal study of urban children with asthma. Environmental and clinical samples are being collected at 3 seasonal visits. Using these samples, we will measure the effects of multiple relevant exposures (environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalates, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)) on biological responses (metabolomics, oxidative stress, inflammatory markers, and endocannabinoids) and asthma outcomes. Our overall hypothesis is that relevant environmental exposures and their interactions drive disease severity in urban children with asthma. We will test this hypothesis by investigating the following aims: Aim 1: To investigate how environmental exposures (ETS, PAHs, phthalates, and VOCs) and their interactions contribute to asthma severity in urban children. Aim 2: To determine if environmental exposures in children with asthma are associated with changes in in biological responses (metabolomics, oxidative stress, inflammatory markers, and endocannabinoids). Aim 3: To determine which biological responses mediate the relationships between environmental exposures and asthma severity. Aim 4: To compare environmental exposures and biological responses in asthmatic and non-asthmatic children