ArticleJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2021
Fine Particulate Matter and Markers of Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology at Autopsy in a Community-Based Cohort.
Article in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Air pollution: a latent key driving force of dementia.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Ambient Air Pollution and the Severity of Alzheimer Disease Neuropathology.JAMA neurology · 2025Article
- Optimizing Air Pollution Exposure Assessment with Application to Cognitive Function.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025Article
- Pathways to the Brain: Impact of Fine Particulate Matter Components on the Central Nervous System.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Impact on murine neurodevelopment of early-life exposure to airborne ultrafine carbon nanoparticles.Particle and fibre toxicology · 2024Article
- Particulate Matter-Induced Emerging Health Effects Associated with Oxidative Stress and Inflammation.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Air Pollution as an Environmental Risk Factor for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.Medical research archives · 2024Article
- Association of PMNeurology · 2024Article
- The association of long-term exposure to criteria air pollutants, fine particulate matter components, and airborne trace metals with late-life brain amyloid burden in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.Environment international · 2023Article
- Air pollution and plasma amyloid beta in a cohort of older adults: Evidence from the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory study.Environment international · 2023Article
- Exposure to air pollution and risk of incident dementia in the UK Biobank.Environmental research · 2022Article
- The Physiological Effects of Air Pollution: Particulate Matter, Physiology and Disease.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- A national cohort study (2000-2018) of long-term air pollution exposure and incident dementia in older adults in the United States.Nature communications · 2021Article
- A bibliometric and systematic review of the global impact of air pollution on Alzheimer's disease: Insights from cohort studies.Journal of Alzheimer's disease reportsReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvidence links fine particulate matter (PM2.5) to Alzheimer's disease (AD), but no community-based prospective cohort studies in older adults have evaluated the association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and markers of AD neuropathology at autopsy.
objectiveUsing a well-established autopsy cohort and new spatiotemporal predictions of air pollution, we evaluated associations of 10-year PM2.5 exposure prior to death with Braak stage, Consortium to Establish a Registry for AD (CERAD) score, and combined AD neuropathologic change (ABC score).
methodsWe used autopsy specimens (N = 832) from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, with enrollment ongoing since 1994. We assigned long-term exposure at residential address based on two-week average concentrations from a newly developed spatiotemporal model. To account for potential selection bias, we conducted inverse probability weighting. Adjusting for covariates with tiered models, we performed ordinal regression for Braak and CERAD and logistic regression for dichotomized ABC score.
results10-year average (SD) PM2.5 from death across the autopsy cohort was 8.2 (1.9) μg/m3. Average age (SD) at death was 89 (7) years. Each 1μg/m3 increase in 10-year average PM2.5 prior to death was associated with a suggestive increase in the odds of worse neuropathology as indicated by CERAD score (OR: 1.35 (0.90, 1.90)) but a suggestive decreased odds of neuropathology as defined by the ABC score (OR: 0.79 (0.49, 1.19)). There was no association with Braak stage (OR: 0.99 (0.64, 1.47)).
conclusionWe report inconclusive associations between PM2.5 and AD neuropathology at autopsy among a cohort where 94% of individuals experienced 10-year exposures below the current EPA standard. Prior studies of AD risk factors and AD neuropathology are similarly inconclusive, suggesting alternative mechanistic pathways for disease or residual confounding.
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