ArticleEnvironmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.)2026
Untargeted metabolomic profiling of childhood asthma: An exploratory analysis of anthropogenic chemicals and the serum metabolome.
Article in Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, yet its causes, environmental links, and underlying mechanisms are still not well understood despite extensive research. Methods: We examined the cross-sectional relationship between asthma and metabolic features in 628 serum samples (165 cases, 463 controls) from children aged 8, 12, and 16 years, in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy birth cohort. Metabolic features were assessed using liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry. In a single-feature-at-a-time approach, asthma status (i.e., current asthma) was regressed against the measured intensity of each of the features; this approach alone was further extended to age-stratified analyses. Biological pathways were explored using Mummichog. In addition, we assessed the association of exogenous mixtures exhibiting substantial intercorrelations (i.e., for polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS] only) with asthma. Results: Liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry detected 55,444 metabolic features, including 38 identified exogenous compounds (15 PFAS, 14 pesticides, 4 phenols, 4 phthalates, and 1 other compound) and 460 identified endogenous metabolites. Overall, we observed limited evidence of robust associations between individual environmental compounds and childhood asthma. Some age-specific signals were observed, including a positive association for monocyclohexyl phthalate and a negative association for monoethyl phosphate in age-stratified analyses, although these findings did not consistently meet multiple-testing thresholds. PFAS as a mixture was not associated with asthma ( Conclusion: In this exploratory metabolomics analysis, we found limited evidence for strong associations between measured environmental compounds and childhood asthma. Nevertheless, several age-specific signals and pathway-level patterns, particularly involving tyrosine metabolism, were observed and may help guide future hypothesis-driven studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.