Over the past few decades, numerous environmental chemicals from solvents to pesticides have been suggested to be involved in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Most of the evidence has accumulated from occupational or cohort studies in humans or laboratory research in animal models, with a range of chemicals being implicated. What has been missing is a systematic approach analogous to genome-wide association studies, which have identified dozens of genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Fortunately, it is now possible to study hundreds to thousands of chemical features under the exposome framework. This Perspective explores how advances in mass spectrometry make it possible to generate exposomic data to complement genomic data and thereby better understand neurodegenerative diseases.

在过去的几十年里，从溶剂到杀虫剂的许多环境化学物质被认为与神经退行性疾病的发生和进展有关。大多数证据是从人类职业或队列研究或动物模型实验室研究中积累的，涉及一系列化学物质。所缺少的是类似于全基因组关联研究的系统方法，该研究已经识别出数十种与阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病和其他神经退行性疾病有关的基因。幸运的是，现在可以在暴露组框架下研究数百到数千种化学特征。本视角探讨了质谱技术的进步如何能够生成暴露组数据以补充基因组数据，从而更好地了解神经退行性疾病。