Ronsmans Steven, Sørig Hougaard Karin, Nawrot Tim S, Plusquin Michelle, Huaux François, Jesús Cruz María, Moldovan Horatiu, Verpaele Steven, Jayapala Murali, Tunney Michael, Humblet-Baron Stéphanie, Dirven Hubert, Cecilie Nygaard Unni, Lindeman Birgitte, Duale Nur, Liston Adrian, Meulengracht Flachs Esben, Kastaniegaard Kenneth, Ketzel Matthias, Goetz Julia, Vanoirbeek Jeroen, Ghosh Manosij, Hoet Peter H M
Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Environ Epidemiol. 2022 Feb 1;6(1):e193. doi: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000193. eCollection 2022 Feb.
Immune-mediated, noncommunicable diseases-such as autoimmune and inflammatory diseases-are chronic disorders, in which the interaction between environmental exposures and the immune system plays an important role. The prevalence and societal costs of these diseases are rising in the European Union. The EXIMIOUS consortium-gathering experts in immunology, toxicology, occupational health, clinical medicine, exposure science, epidemiology, bioinformatics, and sensor development-will study eleven European study populations, covering the entire lifespan, including prenatal life. Innovative ways of characterizing and quantifying the exposome will be combined with high-dimensional immunophenotyping and -profiling platforms to map the immune effects (immunome) induced by the exposome. We will use two main approaches that "meet in the middle"-one starting from the exposome, the other starting from health effects. Novel bioinformatics tools, based on systems immunology and machine learning, will be used to integrate and analyze these large datasets to identify immune fingerprints that reflect a person's lifetime exposome or that are early predictors of disease. This will allow researchers, policymakers, and clinicians to grasp the impact of the exposome on the immune system at the level of individuals and populations.
免疫介导的非传染性疾病，如自身免疫性疾病和炎症性疾病，是慢性疾病，其中环境暴露与免疫系统之间的相互作用起着重要作用。在欧盟，这些疾病的患病率和社会成本正在上升。EXIMIOUS联盟汇聚了免疫学、毒理学、职业健康、临床医学、暴露科学、流行病学、生物信息学和传感器开发等领域的专家，将对11个欧洲研究人群进行研究，涵盖整个生命周期，包括产前阶段。表征和量化暴露组的创新方法将与高维免疫表型分析和谱分析平台相结合，以绘制暴露组诱导的免疫效应（免疫组）。我们将采用两种“中间相遇”的主要方法——一种从暴露组开始，另一种从健康效应开始。基于系统免疫学和机器学习的新型生物信息学工具将用于整合和分析这些大型数据集，以识别反映个人终生暴露组或疾病早期预测指标的免疫指纹。这将使研究人员、政策制定者和临床医生能够在个体和人群层面上把握暴露组对免疫系统的影响。
