alzhub.org
Get help now — free helplines

You can call any of these for free. You do not need a diagnosis, an appointment, or a crisis to call — questions and plain exhaustion are reasons enough.

  • Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline 800-272-3900 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Free, confidential support and information for people with dementia, caregivers, families and the public. Master's-level clinicians. Also Spanish.
  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 988 24/7 Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. For anyone in emotional distress or a mental-health crisis, including caregivers.
  • Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) Helpline 866-232-8484 9:00 am - 9:00 pm ET, seven days a week Licensed social workers providing support, info and referrals. Also text message and web chat. Text: 646-586-5283

In a medical emergency, call 911. More numbers, and what each line does, on the help page.

Home › Research › Topic

Air pollution and environmental exposures

294 studies in this group. A computer grouped them by what their titles and summaries are about, not by a hand-made list. The name describes most of the group, not every study in it.

Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.

Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.

  1. Carbonaceous Components Underlying Wildfire Smoke PM 2.5 -Associated Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Older US Adults

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-10-11 Risk factors

    Wildfire smoke exposure is increasing across the U.S., but the long-term neurological effects of smoke-specific fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and its carbonaceous components remain uncertain.

  2. Seasonally Normalized Vitamin D Status and Long-Term Mortality and Multisystem Disease Risk in the UK Biobank

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-10-09 Risk factors

    Seasonally normalized 25(OH)D identifies a reproducible state of systemic vulnerability while reducing exposure misclassification caused by calendar timing of measurement.

  3. Triple-Omics Analysis Unveiled the Neuroprotective Mechanisms of Akkermansia muciniphila in an Environmental Exposure-Linked Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. bioRxiv 2026-10-07 Risk factors

    These findings identify restoration of hippocampal transcript fate and splice-isoform selection as a mechanism potentially underlying A. muciniphila -mediated protection against Cd neurotoxicity, and establish post-transcriptional RNA regulation as a gut-brain target for mitigating environmentally driven neurotoxicity.

  4. Micro- and nanoplastics alter electrophysiological brain patterns and reshape human neurodevelopmental trajectories

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. bioRxiv 2026-09-24 Disease mechanisms

    Environmental microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are emerging contaminants that accumulate in human tissues, including the brain, yet their mechanistic impact on the nervous system remains poorly understood.

  5. Association between urban green space coverage and incident Alzheimer’s disease among older adults in metropolitan South Korea: a population-based retrospective cohort study

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. Research Square 2026-09-14 Risk factors

    Higher UGS coverage was associated with a lower risk of incident AD among older adults in urban South Korea.

  6. Afternoon Spectral Reddening of Daylight as a Candidate Physical Cue for Sundowning Syndrome

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. Preprints.org 2026-08-31 Brain scans and imaging

    The short-wavelength content of available light declines steadily through the afternoon, well before nightfall, while the long-wavelength component remains nearly constant.

  7. Neuroexposomics to Prevent Neurodegenerative Disease: Challenges, Next Steps, and Recommendations

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. Preprints.org 2026-08-31 How common it is

    Neuroexposome research investigates associations between physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial factors and neurological health.

  8. Environmental Exposures and Brain Health Outcomes in Healthy Ageing: A Systematic Review

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. PsyArXiv 2026-08-27 Risk factors

    Of 2,496 records screened, 26 studies met eligibility, comprising >84,000 older adults across 10 countries: United States, South Korea, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Taiwan, Germany, and Japan.

  9. High-Content Screening Identifies Dithiocarbamates As A Class Of Chemicals That Disrupts TDP-43 Proteostasis

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. bioRxiv 2026-08-19 Risk factors

    Transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) aggregation and loss of function are hallmark features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) among other neurodegenerative diseases.

  10. Diesel exhaust particles disrupt mouse and human iPSC-derived microglial function and Amyloid-β clearance in Alzheimer’s disease models

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. bioRxiv 2026-07-23 Risk factors

    Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, yet the environmental drivers that accelerate its progression remain poorly defined.

  11. Prenatal Pesticide Exposure and Early Alzheimer Disease-Related Biomarker and Cognitive Changes in Midlife

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-05-17 Risk factors

    In this prospective birth cohort study, prenatal exposure to a persistent environmental toxicant was associated with lower plasma Aβ42/40 ratio and worse cognitive performance in midlife, consistent with DDE accelerating the preclinical trajectory of AD-related biological changes decades before symptom onset.

  12. Air Pollution, Health, and Economics: Evaluating the Impact of WHO targets and Guideline Values on Mortality and Morbidity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-03-30 Risk factors

    Direct medical and productivity-related costs associated with incident cases were estimated using a cost-of-illness (COI) framework.

  13. Air pollution exposure in Generation Scotland: molecular fingerprints and health outcomes

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-03-04 Risk factors

    Ambient air pollution has been associated with increased incidence of chronic disease and is estimated to contribute towards 4.2 million early deaths annually.

  14. Mediation of the relationship between air pollution and dementia: A UK Biobank study

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-02-22 Risk factors

    Exposure to the highest quintile of PM 2·5 (Rte:1·14, 95% CI:1·06-1·23), NO x (Rte:1·11, 95% CI:1·03-1·20) or NO 2 (Rte:1·08, 95% CI:0·99-1·16), compared to the lowest quintile, was associated with higher dementia risk.

  15. Association of Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure with Dementia-Related Neuropathologies at Autopsy in a Community-Based Cohort

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-02-05 Risk factors

    Higher exposure to PM 2.5 was associated with cerebral arteriolosclerosis and atherosclerosis at death, consistent with the known vascular toxicity of this pollutant.

  16. Cadmium Exposure and Incidence of All-Cause Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease in US Adults

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2026-01-19 Costs and economics

    No association between cadmium exposure and dementia incidence was observed.

  17. Induction of ferroptotic and amyloidogenic signatures linked to Alzheimer’s disease by chemically distinct air pollutants

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. bioRxiv 2026-01-07 Risk factors

    Air pollution (AirP) exposure is associated with increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk, yet AirP is chemically heterogeneous, complicating identification of shared pathogenic drivers.

  18. The effects of nicotine on neurocognitive outcomes: evidence from a polygenic risk score analysis

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv 2025-12-02 Prevention and risk

    Our findings demonstrate differential effects of nicotine on AD risk and smoking intensity on white matter integrity, requiring triangulation with complementary methodological approaches to better inform potential long-term risks of nicotine intake on neurocognitive outcomes.

  19. Alzheimer's Related Neurodegeneration Mediates Air Pollution Effects on Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy

    ⚠ Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 16 out of 100. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2023-11-29 Risk factors

    Living in locations with higher PM2.5 (per interquartile range [IQR]=3.17μg/m3) or NO2 (per IQR=6.63ppb) was associated with greater MTL atrophy (βPM2.5 = -0.29, 95% confidence interval [CI]=[-0.41,-0.18]; βNO2 =-0.12, 95%CI=[-0.23,-0.02]).

Other topics