Does air pollution affect lupus risk?

New research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology indicates that chronic exposure to air pollutants may increase the risk of developing lupus, an autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs.

There are few existing studies that investigate the risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated with long-term exposure to air pollutants. This study aimed to explore associations between long-term exposure to air pollutants and incident SLE and further evaluate interactions and joint effects of genetic risk and air pollutants.

For the study, investigators analyzed data on 459,815 participants from the UK Biobank. A total of 399 lupus cases were identified during a median follow-up of 11.77 years. Air pollutant exposure was linked with a greater likelihood of developing lupus. Individuals with a high genetic risk and high air pollution exposure had the highest risk of developing lupus compared with those with low genetic risk and low air pollution exposure.. The concentrations of air pollutants (fine particulate matter with diameter ≤2.5 μm [PM2.5], particulate matter diameter ≤10 μm [PM10], nitrogen dioxide [NO2], and nitrogen oxides [NOx]) were estimated by land-use regression model. We applied Cox proportional hazards model to explore linkages of air pollutants and incident SLE. The polygenic risk score (PRS) was used for further assessing the interactions and joint effects of genetic risk and air pollutants.

“Our study provides crucial insights into the air pollution contributing to autoimmune diseases. The findings can inform the development of stricter air quality regulations to mitigate exposure to harmful pollutants, thereby reducing the risk of lupus,” said co–corresponding author Yaohua Tian, PhD, of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in China.

The research concluded that Long-term exposure to air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and NOx) may increase the risk of developing SLE.

References: Meiqi Xing, Yudiyang Ma, Feipeng Cui, Dankang Li, Jianing Wang, Linxi Tang, Lei Zheng, Jian Yang, Yaohua Tian First published: 10 July 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/art.42929