Sophia Harlid

Dec 6, 2024 | nature.com | Kalliroi Sdougkou |Stefano Papazian |Wendy Wu |Jonathan Martin |Sophia Harlid |Jessica Edlund

The chemical exposome includes exposure to numerous environmental and endogenous molecules, many of which have been linked to reproductive outcomes due to their endocrine-disrupting properties. As several breast cancer risk factors, including age and parity, are related to reproduction, it is imperative to investigate the interplay between such factors and the chemical exposome prior to conducting large scale exposome-based breast cancer studies. This pilot study aimed to provide an overview of the chemical exposome in plasma samples from healthy women and identify associations between environmental exposures and three risk factors for breast cancer: age, parity, and age at menarche. Plasma samples (n = 161), were selected based on reproductive history from 100 women participating in the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study, between 1987 and 2006. Samples were analyzed by liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) for 77 priority target analytes including contaminants and hormones, with simultaneous untargeted profiling of the chemical exposome and metabolome. Linear mixed effects models were applied to test associations between risk factors and chemical levels. Fifty-five target analytes were detected in at least one individual and over 94,000 untargeted features were detected across all samples. Among untargeted features, 430 could be annotated and were broadly classified as environmental (246), endogenous (167) or ambiguous (17). Applying mixed effect models to features detected in at least 70% of the samples (16,778), we found seven targeted analytes (including caffeine and various per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) and 38 untargeted features, positively associated with age. The directionality of these associations reversed for parity, decreasing with increasing births. Seven separate targeted analytes were associated with age at menarche. This study demonstrates how a comprehensive chemical exposome approach can be used to inform future research prioritization regarding associations between known and unknown substances, reproduction, and breast cancer risk.

Dec 12, 2023 | nature.com | Josef Fritz |Tone Bjørge |Angela Wood |Christel Häggström |Hanno Ulmer |Gabriele Nagel | +3 more

AbstractInsulin resistance is a hypothesised biological mechanism linking obesity with prostate cancer (PCa) death. Data in support of this hypothesis is limited. We included 259,884 men from eight European cohorts, with 11,760 incident PCa’s and 1784 PCa deaths during follow-up. We used the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index as indicator of insulin resistance.