The Exposome Approach in Allergies and Lung Diseases: Is It Time to Define a Preconception Exposome?

Abstract

Emerging research suggests environmental exposures before conception may adversely affect allergies and lung diseases in future generations. Most studies are limited as they have focused on single exposures, not considering that these diseases have a multifactorial origin in which environmental and lifestyle factors are likely to interact. Traditional exposure assessment methods fail to capture the interactions among environmental exposures and their impact on fundamental biological processes, as well as individual and temporal factors. A valid estimation of exposure preconception is difficult since the human reproductive cycle spans decades and the access to germ cells is limited. The exposome is defined as the cumulative measure of external exposures on an organism (external exposome), and the associated biological responses (endogenous exposome) throughout the lifespan, from conception and onwards. An exposome approach implies a targeted or agnostic analysis of the concurrent and temporal multiple exposures, and may, together with recent technological advances, improve the assessment of the environmental contributors to health and disease. This review describes the current knowledge on preconception environmental exposures as related to respiratory health outcomes in offspring. We discuss the usefulness and feasibility of using an exposome approach in this research, advocating for the preconception exposure window to become included in the exposome concept.

Keywords: allergies; asthma; epigenetics; exposome; intergenerational; lung function; lung health; preconception; transgenerational.

Figure 1

The preconception environment and the exposome approach. Maternal (yellow) and paternal (blue) preconception environments influencing germ cells (purple), and the possible impacts on offspring respiratory health, assessed through the exposome approach. (Nuria Báez Chocrón, Illus.).