Exposome in human health: Utopia or wonderland?

Abstract

The current human exposome primarily emphasizes the total environmental exposure during an entire life. The characteristics of "lifelong" and "all environmental factors" make it very challenging to bring the exposomic study into real-life applications. Herein, we mainly discuss the typical application scenarios of exposomics and how to conduct an exposomic study to establish relationships between the exposome and human health. To increase the feasibility and efficiency, we propose that (1) an exposomic study can start with health events during critical-window periods; (2) both data- and hypothesis-driven exposomics should be combined to prioritize the risk of environmental factors; and (3) reliable statistical analysis of high-dimensional data of external and internal exposure factors are urgently needed. With standardization of the exposomic study, it will be critical to build a "wonderland" for human health.

Keywords: critical window; exposome; exposomics; health risk assessment; human health.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

© 2021 The Author(s).

Figures

Figure 1

Critical-window exposome with prioritized exposure factors increases the feasibility of the conventional exposome in human health risk assessment. The critical window can be defined by the development of one specific disease. The risk importance of exposome factors from both exogenous and endogenous processes for the specific disease should be meta-analyzed and prioritized. To achieve this goal, appropriate epidemiological design, followed by exposure prioritization, biomarker databases, analytical platforms, statistical analysis, computational toxicity, experimental validation, and even policy evaluation, needs to be further standardized.