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Integrating Environmental Exposures, Epigenetic Programming and Nanotechnology for Chronic Disease Prevention in the One Health Era
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This review pulls together research showing that everyday exposures, like air pollution, pesticides, and microplastics, can alter our biology at the molecular level, especially early in life, raising long-term risks for heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. It also highlights how nanotechnology could help by detecting these harmful changes earlier, delivering more precise treatments, and even cleaning up pollutants, though most of these tools are still being tested and aren't widely available yet.
Chronic diseases rank among the major challenges for global public health, and interactions between environmental exposures, biological susceptibility, and developmental processes increasingly shape their severity. Evidence indicates that exposure to air pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals can promote oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine dysregulation, and epigenetic alterations, particularly during critical developmental periods. Through mechanisms consistent with the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) framework, these disruptions can contribute to long-term susceptibility to cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, neurodegenerative, and neoplastic diseases. In this context, nanotechnology offers emerging opportunities for prevention, early detection, monitoring, targeted therapy, and environmental remediation. Nanobiosensors and nanoscale diagnostic platforms can enable the sensitive detection of molecular and epigenetic biomarkers, while nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems can improve therapeutic targeting and controlled release. Concurrently, nanomaterials, magnetic nanocomposites, photocatalytic systems, and green nanotechnologies demonstrate potential to remove or transform environmental contaminants and reduce human exposure. However, the translational maturity of these applications varies substantially, ranging from clinically approved nanomedicines to predominantly preclinical and laboratory-scale approaches, underscoring the need for rigorous safety assessments, regulatory frameworks, and validation under real-world conditions. Overall, integrating nanotechnology with environmental health, epigenetic research, sustainability, and the One Health approach may offer a multidisciplinary pathway toward earlier interventions, reduced exposure, and the prevention of chronic diseases, while simultaneously promoting human, animal, and environmental health.
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Molecular Mechanisms of Environmental Pollutants in Human Health for Unravelling the Pathophysiology of Chronic Diseases
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This review examined the integrated molecular mechanisms by which environmental pollutants—including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, endocrine disruptors, and microplastics—contribute to chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative conditions. The authors found that multiple pollutant classes converge on oxidative stress, epigenetic modification, and inflammatory signaling as shared pathogenic pathways.
Micro- and nanoplastics: Emerging environmental threats to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
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This review examines how micro- and nanoplastic exposure may contribute to chronic health conditions through the lens of developmental origins of health and disease. Evidence suggests that microplastics accumulate in human metabolic and reproductive tissues and may induce physiological and epigenetic changes that could potentially be inherited by future generations, though research into these mechanisms is still in early stages.
Translational One Health Strategies for Nanoplastic Exposure Mitigation
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This review paper looks at strategies to reduce our exposure to nanoplastics—tiny plastic particles small enough to slip through our body's natural barriers and build up in our organs over time. Rather than presenting new experiments, it pulls together ideas from environmental science, technology, and public health to propose practical ways to track and cut down nanoplastic pollution before it reaches us. The takeaway: tackling this contamination requires coordinated action across multiple sectors, since these particles move easily between our environment, food, water, and bodies.
Environmental Xenobiotics and Epigenetic Modifications: Implications for Human Health and Disease
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This review examines how environmental pollutants, including microplastics, can change gene activity through epigenetic modifications without altering DNA itself. These changes to how genes are turned on and off can contribute to cancer, brain diseases, and developmental problems, and may even be passed down to future generations. The research highlights that microplastics and other common pollutants could have long-lasting health effects that go beyond direct chemical toxicity.
Beyond genetics: can micro and nanoplastics induce epigenetic and gene-expression modifications?
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This review gathers existing research on whether micro and nanoplastics can cause epigenetic changes, which are modifications that alter how genes work without changing the DNA itself. Although studies are still limited, the evidence so far shows that both short-term and long-term plastic particle exposure can trigger these gene-level changes in various organisms. This is concerning because epigenetic changes can potentially be passed to future generations and may contribute to disease.
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