Department of Neuropathology, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Department of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 18;14(1):28497. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-78240-6.
A combination of multiple genetic and environmental factors appear to be required to trigger the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Early life environmental exposures have been reported to be risk factors for a variety of adult-onset diseases, so we used data from an online international ALS case-control questionnaire to estimate whether any of these could be risk factors for the clinical onset of ALS. Responses were obtained from 1,049 people aged 40 years or more, 568 with ALS and 481 controls. People with ALS were more likely to have been born and lived longer in a country area than in a city area, to have younger parents, and to have lower educational attainment and fewer years of education. No ALS-control differences were found in sibling numbers, birth order, adult height, birth weight, parent smoking, Cesarean delivery, or age of starting smoking. In conclusion, early life events and conditions may be part of a group of polyenvironmental risk factors that act together with polygenetic variants to trigger the onset of ALS. Reducing exposure to adverse environmental factors in early life could help to lower the risk of later developing ALS.
多种遗传和环境因素的结合似乎是引发肌萎缩侧索硬化症 (ALS) 的必要条件。早期生活环境暴露已被报道为多种成人发病疾病的危险因素，因此我们使用来自在线国际 ALS 病例对照问卷调查的数据来估计这些因素是否可能成为 ALS 临床发病的危险因素。共收到 1049 名年龄在 40 岁或以上的人的回复，其中 568 人患有 ALS，481 人为对照。与城市地区相比，ALS 患者更有可能在农村地区出生和生活更长时间，父母更年轻，教育程度更低，受教育年限更少。在兄弟姐妹数量、出生顺序、成人身高、出生体重、父母吸烟、剖腹产或开始吸烟的年龄方面，ALS 患者和对照组之间没有差异。总之，早期生活事件和条件可能是一组多环境危险因素的一部分，这些因素与多基因变异一起作用，引发 ALS 的发作。减少早期生活中对不良环境因素的暴露可能有助于降低日后患 ALS 的风险。
