Issue 9, 2019

Connecting environmental exposure and neurodegeneration using cheminformatics and high resolution mass spectrometry: potential and challenges

Abstract

Connecting chemical exposures over a lifetime to complex chronic diseases with multifactorial causes such as neurodegenerative diseases is an immense challenge requiring a long-term, interdisciplinary approach. Rapid developments in analytical and data technologies, such as non-target high resolution mass spectrometry (NT-HR-MS), have opened up new possibilities to accomplish this, inconceivable 20 years ago. While NT-HR-MS is being applied to increasingly complex research questions, there are still many unidentified chemicals and uncertainties in linking exposures to human health outcomes and environmental impacts. In this perspective, we explore the possibilities and challenges involved in using cheminformatics and NT-HR-MS to answer complex questions that cross many scientific disciplines, taking the identification of potential (small molecule) neurotoxicants in environmental or biological matrices as a case study. We explore capturing literature knowledge and patient exposure information in a form amenable to high-throughput data mining, and the related cheminformatic challenges. We then briefly cover which sample matrices are available, which method(s) could potentially be used to detect these chemicals in various matrices and what remains beyond the reach of NT-HR-MS. We touch on the potential for biological validation systems to contribute to mechanistic understanding of observations and explore which sampling and data archiving strategies may be required to form an accurate, sustained picture of small molecule signatures on extensive cohorts of patients with chronic neurodegenerative disorders. Finally, we reflect on how NT-HR-MS can support unravelling the contribution of the environment to complex diseases.

Graphical abstract: Connecting environmental exposure and neurodegeneration using cheminformatics and high resolution mass spectrometry: potential and challenges

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
12 feb 2019
Accepted
02 jul 2019
First published
05 jul 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2019,21, 1426-1445

Connecting environmental exposure and neurodegeneration using cheminformatics and high resolution mass spectrometry: potential and challenges

E. L. Schymanski, N. C. Baker, A. J. Williams, R. R. Singh, J. Trezzi, P. Wilmes, P. L. Kolber, R. Kruger, N. Paczia, C. L. Linster and R. Balling, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2019, 21, 1426 DOI: 10.1039/C9EM00068B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements