THURSDAY, Feb. 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Traffic-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5) affects the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) score, according to a study published online Feb. 21 in Neurology.

Grace M. Christensen, Ph.D., from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study using 224 brain tissue donors who died before 2020. Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology was assessed among donors using the Braak stage, CERAD score, and combined AD neuropathologic change (ABC) score. The association between traffic-related PM2.5 (based on measurements of one-, three-, and five-year average PM2.5 concentrations before death matched to home addresses) and AD hallmark pathology was examined.

Of the participants, 57 percent had at least one APOE ε4 copy. The researchers observed a significant association for traffic-related PM2.5 with the CERAD score for the one- and three-year exposure windows (odds ratios, 1.92 and 1.87, respectively). Nonsignificant associations were seen for PM2.5 with Braak stage and ABC score. Those without APOE ε4 markers had the strongest associations between PM2.5 and neuropathology markers (e.g., odds ratio, 2.31 for the CERAD score and one-year exposure window); however, the interaction between PM2.5 and APOE genotype was not significant.

"Our study found traffic-related PM2.5 exposure was associated with the CERAD score at autopsy, contributing to a growing body of evidence that PM2.5 affects β-amyloid deposition in the brain," the authors write. "More research is needed to establish causality for the association between PM2.5 and AD, including epidemiologic and mechanistic studies."

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WEDNESDAY, Feb. 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy seems feasible, safe, and efficacious for patients with different autoimmune diseases, according to a study published in the Feb. 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Fabian Müller, M.D., from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, and colleagues examined patients with severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), idiopathic inflammatory myositis, or systemic sclerosis (eight, three, and four patients, respectively) who received a single infusion of CD19 CAR T-cells after fludarabine and cyclophosphamide preconditioning. Efficacy was assessed up to two years after CAR T-cell infusion, measured using the Definition of Remission in SLE (DORIS) remission criteria, American College of Rheumatology-European League against Rheumatism (ACR-EULAR) major clinical response, and the score on the European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group (EUSTAR) activity index.

Patients were followed for a median of 15 months. The mean duration of B-cell aplasia was 112 ± 47 days. The researchers found that all patients with SLE had DORIS remission, all patients with idiopathic inflammatory myositis had an ACR-EULAR major clinical response, and a reduction in the score on the EUSTAR activity index was seen for all patients with systemic sclerosis. In all patients, immunosuppressive therapy was completely stopped. In 10 patients, grade 1 cytokine release syndrome occurred.

"Even though it is premature to judge whether these patients are indeed cured from their autoimmune disease, CD19 CAR T-cells at least appear to be able to achieve sustained disease- and drug-free remission," the authors write.

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TUESDAY, Feb. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Nearly $6 billion in funding will soon be spread through every U.S. state and territory as part of a massive, ongoing effort to clean up the nation's water supply, the Biden Administration announced Tuesday.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to announce the latest infusion of funding, the White House said in a news release.

Projects underway in that city -- including efforts to remove lead water pipes -- are among several across the country that are being funded through bipartisan legislation passed in 2021 that devoted $50 billion to improving the nation's water supply.

“With $50 billion in total, the largest investment in water infrastructure in our nation’s history, EPA will enable communities across the nation to ensure safer drinking water for their residents and rebuild vital clean water infrastructure to protect public health for decades to come,” Regan said in an agency news release.

Instead of choosing which projects to fund, the federal government will deliver the money to states, territories and tribes through the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs, the EPA said.

Many of the country’s water infrastructure problems stem from a general lack of investment, according to the EPA.

Local governments typically can’t afford to update water systems on their own. Even when changes are made, that can still prompt crises like the one in Flint, Mich., where scientists learned residents had high blood lead levels due to corroded pipes from a new drinking water source.

New lead pipes have been banned in the United States since the 1980s, but the EPA estimates there are still at least 9.2 million lead service lines carrying water to American homes.

The funding announced Tuesday will be used to clean drinking water, improve wastewater and sanitation and remove contaminants, and it will also be used to replace lead pipes, the EPA said.

Over $1 billion from the latest round of funding will help cities and states clean up another toxin in Americans’ drinking water: PFAS, "forever" chemicals that are considered dangerous to human health, CNN reported.

Almost half of the tap water in the United States is contaminated with PFAS, according to a study published in 2023.

PFAS exposure is linked to problems like cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage and hormone suppression, according to the EPA.

In June 2022, the EPA issued health advisories that said the chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists first thought.

This month, the EPA proposed labeling nine of the PFAS chemicals as hazardous. If the agency officially makes the change, it will be easier for the government to address PFAS as a part of its cleanup program, CNN reported.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about clean drinking water.

SOURCE: EPA, news release, Feb. 20, 2024; White House, news release, Feb. 20, 2024; CNN

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