CAM Approaches to Air Pollution Related Health Effects

描述（由申请人提供）：空气污染，特别是柴油机尾气 (DE)，与美国四大死亡原因相关：心脏病、癌症、中风和慢性下呼吸道疾病。尽管这些情况在城市周围和职业环境中普遍存在并且 DE 暴露量很大，但很少有基于生物学的尝试来阻止急性或慢性暴露的影响。氧化应激是空气污染物引起的不良健康影响的作用机制中的一个流行理论。抗氧化剂是身体对抗氧化应激的防御手段，CAM 实践者通常使用抗氧化剂来预防和减少接触污染物的不利后果。本研究应用旨在检查 CAM 产品（谷胱甘肽 (GSH)）和模型（预防），以尝试减少 DE 暴露引起的氧化应激。华盛顿大学暴露实验室提供了一个无与伦比的机会来检查 CAM 干预措施在增强人类对 DE 反应方面的作用。这项嵌套研究应用是一项双盲、安慰剂对照、交叉实验，旨在确定吸入 GSH 是否可以减弱与受控 DE 暴露相关的观察到的氧化应激。虽然这种有前景的干预措施具有生物学基础、科学合理且目前已在 CAM 社区中使用，但缺乏特定于暴露的证据。本研究的长期目标是严格审查 CAM 干预措施的潜在效果，以增强污染物对健康造成的不利影响，这些污染物对公众健康造成持续的巨大负担。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Air pollution, specifically diesel exhaust (DE), is associated with the top four causes of mortality in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory diseases. In spite of the prevalence of these conditions and magnitude of DE exposure in ambient urban and occupational environments, few biologically based attempts have been made to thwart the effects of acute or chronic exposures. Oxidative stress is a prevailing theory in the mechanism of action of air pollutant-induced adverse health effects. Antioxidants, the body's defense against oxidative stress, are commonly employed by CAM practitioners to prevent and reduce the adverse consequences of exposure to pollutants. This research application is intended to examine a CAM product (glutathione (GSH)) and model (prevention) in an attempt to reduce oxidative stress induced by DE exposure. The UW exposure laboratory offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine CAM interventions in augmenting human responses to DE. This nested research application is a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over experiment to determine if inhaled GSH can blunt the observed oxidative stress associated with controlled DE exposure. While biologically based, scientifically plausible, and currently used in the CAM community, this promising intervention lacks exposure-specific evidence. The long-term objective of this research is to rigorously examine potential CAM interventions in augmenting adverse health effects induced by pollutants that pose a substantial ongoing public health burden.