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Review
. 2015;12(2):116-46.
doi: 10.2174/1567205012666150204121719.

Role of environmental contaminants in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease: a review

Manivannan Yegambaram, Bhagyashree Manivannan, Thomas G Beach, Rolf U Halden  1
Affiliations
Review

Role of environmental contaminants in the etiology of Alzheimer's disease: a review

Manivannan Yegambaram et al. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2015.

Abstract

Alzheimer's dis ease (AD) is a leading cause of mortality in the developed world with 70% risk attributable to genetics. The remaining 30% of AD risk is hypothesized to include environmental factors and human lifestyle patterns. Environmental factors possibly include inorganic and organic hazards, exposure to toxic metals (aluminium, copper), pesticides (organochlorine and organophosphate insecticides), industrial chemicals (flame retardants) and air pollutants (particulate matter). Long term exposures to these environmental contaminants together with bioaccumulation over an individual's life-time are speculated to induce neuroinflammation and neuropathology paving the way for developing AD. Epidemiologic associations between environmental contaminant exposures and AD are still limited. However, many in vitro and animal studies have identified toxic effects of environmental contaminants at the cellular level, revealing alterations of pathways and metabolisms associated with AD that warrant further investigations. This review provides an overview of in vitro, animal and epidemiological studies on the etiology of AD, highlighting available data supportive of the long hypothesized link between toxic environmental exposures and development of AD pathology.

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Figures

Fig. (1)
Fig. (1)
World map illustrating the global distribution of deaths caused due to Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia using WHO data from 2011. Image courtesy: Image recreated from http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers-dementia/by-country/.
Fig. (2)
Fig. (2)
Environmental and man-made contaminants/toxins associated with AD include toxic metals, pesticides/insecticides, other industrial/ commerical chemicals, and air pollutants. Exposure occurring in utero, during child growth and development, in adult life causing an increased risk for AD and AD-like pathology later in life.
Fig. (3)
Fig. (3)
Radar graph representing studies published (8102 papers) on the five categories of environmental contaminants assocaited with AD or AD-like progression.
Fig. (4)
Fig. (4)
Hypothetical schematic diagram depicting the expected increasing incidence of Alzheimer’s disease due to increased human life expec-tancy
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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