For ATS 2011 attendees who live and breathe lung health, there are multiple options for inspiration this week. First up is today’s scientific symposium A8 “Air Pollution and Immunity: Innate and Adaptive,” which will take place from 8:15 to 10:45 a.m. in room 605-607 (street level) of the Colorado Convention Center.
Christopher Carlsten, MD, MPH
“It is increasingly appreciated that air pollution, both particulate and gaseous, influences both innate and adaptive immunity,” said symposium co-chair Christopher Carlsten, MD, MPH, who added that the effects of air pollution include modulation of monocyte and dendritic cell function, cytokine production, antibody isotype-switching, “de novo” antibody production and phagocytic function.
Understanding these effects can help decipher the role of air pollution in dramatic changes in global asthma and allergy.
Dr. Carlsten, assistant professor and chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, said that scientists, practitioners and policy makers would benefit from the symposium.
“For scientists, there remains a gap between the mechanistic discoveries that link physiologically relevant particle and gaseous exposures with innate and acquired immunity and the clinically focused studies that relate such exposures to immune-related endpoints in humans,” he said. “Practitioners have questions of how mechanistic and clinical science inform their interpretation and treatment of allergic/immune-based airway diseases, such as asthma and rhinitis. Finally, when policy makers understand how high-quality science gives plausibility to clinical research findings, it has bolstered pollution-related regulatory efforts.”
Involvement and interaction among all three stakeholders should translate into better prevention of disease, Dr. Carlsten said.
“Moreover, we all need to appreciate that this topic goes beyond just asthma and rhinitis, informing the immunologic basis of chronic cardiopulmonary diseases, for example, COPD and atherosclerosis, as these become better defined,” he said.
Co-chairing the symposium will be Neil Alexis, PhD, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Steve Georas, MD, of the University of Rochester, N.Y.
Occupational & Environmental Hazards
On Monday, B10 “Respiratory Outcomes from Community Exposures to Occupational/Environmental Hazards” will update attendees on the most common causes of respiratory conditions in communities exposed to occupational/environmental hazards. The symposium, which will take place from 8:15 to 10:45 a.m. in room 605-607 (street level) of the Colorado Convention Center, will cover the environmental causes of asthma and sarcoidosis; non-occupational chronic beryllium disease; community exposures to asbestos; living near busy roads and asthma; and respiratory disease from agricultural practices. Mark Schenker, MD, MPH, professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California Davis School of Medicine, will chair the symposium.
Nanotechnology & Environmental Health
From noon to 1 p.m. on Monday in room 108-110-112 (street level) of the Colorado Convention Center, session L12 “NIEHS Nanotechnology Environmental Health and Safety Research” will shed light on engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), which are used in industrial and consumer products, and their interactions with biological systems.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is leading research efforts toward understanding potential health implications of ENMs. Topics will include lung interactions with nanoparticles; nanoparticle activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome; and respiratory effects of inhaled single-walled carbon nanotubes.
Co-chairing the session will be Srikanth Nadadur, PhD, of the NIEHS in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Edward Crandall, MD, PhD, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Asthma & Occupational Exposure
Session C89 “Using a Job-Exposure Matrix to Assess Exposure in Epidemiologic Studies of Asthma,” which will take place from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, will describe the challenges of assessing occupational exposures for asthma; the development and testing of job-exposure matrices that have been used in asthma studies; the elements of a task-exposure matrix and strategies for improving future job-exposure matrices for asthma.
Paul K. Henneberger, DSc, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Division of Respiratory Disease Studies in Morgantown, W. Va., will chair the symposium, which will take place in Korbel Ballroom 1E-1F (lower level) of the Colorado Convention Center.
Occupational Lung Diseases
From 8:15 to 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, another session will explore the inhalational exposures and respiratory outcomes of military deployment to Southwest Asia. D6 “Occupational Lung Diseases in U.S. Military Personnel Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan” will review current knowledge on complex inhalational exposures, epidemiologic studies, animal toxicology studies, and clinical lung findings in U.S. military men and women who are returning from Southwest Asia, according to co-chair Cecile S. Rose, MD, MPH.
Cecile S. Rose, MD, MPH
The symposium, which will take place in Wells Fargo Theatre Section 1 (street level) of the Colorado Convention Center, will interest researchers and clinicians alike, said Dr. Rose, who is professor at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado in Denver.
Researchers face a number of issues, Dr. Rose said. For one, “there are the uncertainties regarding lung disease risk and pathogenesis, including the incidence and prevalence of lung disease in the potentially exposed population,” she said.
Further challenges include the spectrum of possible lung diseases that may be occurring from Southwest Asia exposures, such as asthma, constrictive bronchiolitis, acute eosinophilic pneumonia and rhinosinusitis, and the variability in exposures that may confer risk, including particulate matter from desert dusts, burn pits, vehicle exhaust and tobacco smoke.
Clinicians face a different set of challenges with this patient population, including “the role of targeted medical surveillance in determining need for further respiratory diagnostic evaluation, and, importantly, the role of surgical lung biopsy in clinical diagnosis of post-deployment lung disease,” she said.
Anthony M. Szema, MD, of Stony Brook School of Medicine, N.Y., will co-chair the symposium.