Inhaling Air Pollution Harms Your Brain Directly, Here's How

Air pollution is an age-old problem that escalates every year. The most common effects of this toxicity in the atmosphere are found in the lung and heart organs. In a new study, scientists found additional impacts of the particular pollution on the human brain.

Air Pollution and Brain Health

TOPSHOT-US-LIFESTYLE-POLLUTION — TOPSHOT - A man skates before the Manhattan city skyline at a park in the Brooklyn borough of New York on July 20, 2021. - Domestic media reported that smoke from wilfires buring on the west coast had made its way across the country as World Air Quality project published an air quality index reading of 172, or 'unhealthy' for New York city. ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

Through the help of mice subjects, researchers found how toxic particles from air pollution affect our brains. Their observations confirm that the ultra-fine particles we inhale from the atmosphere could directly travel to the lungs, disrupt the bloodstream traffic, and eventually invade the brain organ.

The most concerning part are that the toxins dwell on the brain's tissues. Once the particles are embedded in the organ, it would be hard for the natural cleaning process of our immune system to get rid of them.

Experts say that the airborne particles collected by a system when inhaling polluted environments are retained longer in the brain than any other body organ.

The authors did not have any data about the existence of the pathway they found in mice to humans. However, likely, the smallest scale of particles could enter the brain directly by passing through the blood-brain barrier.

This is alarming, considering that the barrier serves as the main checkpoint that repels foreign and harmful materials from other body parts to the central nervous system.

In a study published in the journal Radiology, titled "Blood-Brain Barrier Leakage in Patients with Early Alzheimer's Disease," it was shown that a certain level of leakage across the blood-brain barrier could significantly impact the brain of an individual that might result in severe cognitive damage.

On the other hand, the new study was the first to show how the air pollutants exploit the barrier and the leakage we casually inhale.

ALSO READ : Unexpected Changes of Social Behaviors in Mammals Discovered with CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing

Airborne Toxins and Its Effects on Brain Organ

Previous research about the physical vulnerability of our brains shows that particulate matter (PM) cannot infiltrate the blood-brain barrier. Earlier papers suggest that the PMs could only enter the brain regions through the nose or the gut's nerve cells that are directly connected to the central nervous system.

University of Birmingham's environmental nanoscience specialist and author of the latest studyIseult, Lynch, explained that their works clarify particle inhalation and how they travel throughout the body.

The findings are important since the effects of air pollution are commonly associated with the cardiovascular system.

According to scientists, people commonly exposed to air pollutants have been detected with foreign particles in their cerebrospinal fluid. These chemicals include calcium, Iron, malayaite, and anatase titanium dioxide.

Chronic exposure to these airborne toxins could result in neuroinflammation, cognitive decline, and even damage close to symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

The study will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled "Passage of exogeneous fine particles from the lung into the brain in humans and animals."