AH-INT-210

DNA methylation data have been analysed through epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS), which aim to identify associations between DNA methylation levels at specific CpG sites (CpGs) and various traits or diseases. While EWAS have provided valuable insights into the relationship between DNA methylation and health, they suffer from limitations such as low replication of findings and inconsistency across different cohorts. To address these challenges, researchers have developed a novel approach that utilizes DNA methylation surrogates to enhance the predictive power of DNA methylation data.DNA methylation offers an inherent biological mechanism for cells to remember alterations associated with environmental exposure and has great potential to reconstruct exposure in practical situations. This is particularly useful where direct assessment may be difficult due to technology required and potentially for highly variable external exposures. For instance, bone (patella and tibia) lead levels are gold standard biomarkers in capturing cumulative, and potentially neurotoxic, lead exposure but require measurement through X-ray-fluorescence-spectroscopy which is not widely available. This is study will investigate associations between DNA methylation lead surrogate markers and cognition in the European HELIX exposome cohort of children and the AIRWAVE study of employees of the British police forces.

The aims of the project are as follows: 

1. Analyse associations of sociodemographic variables with DNAm surrogate markers of lead.
2. Analyse associations of DNAm surrogate markers of lead with cognition.
3. Compare associations in children and adults.