Cell-based detection of inhalation health hazards
- pdf version of the abstract

Abstract
Public concern for health issues resulting from exposure to airborne pollution, bacteria, industrial chemicals, and domestic wastes has increased substantially over the past few years due to several well-publicized situations including the Bacillus anthracis attacks in September and October of 2001. In these and other less-publicized cases, public concern focused on the health risks of inhalation toxins. The scientific community has been unable to adequately address these concerns with any veracity in part due to the lack of robust technologies to detect the presence of respirable toxins and quantify their impact on human health. Numerous approaches have been developed using methods to quantify one type or one class of toxins using, for example, antibody-based measurements. To provide the necessary broad applicability technologies must be able to respond to a wide array of inhalation hazards including biological agents (bacteria, fungi, and their products); respond to chemical agents including hazardous metals, pesticides, and others; and be reasonably inexpensive and able to operate outside of laboratory conditions so that they can be deployed at the site of greatest risks.
Detection of inhalation health hazards presents a significant challenge due to the broad range of materials that can deposit in the lung and impact the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. For example, exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) strongly correlates with pulmonary inflammation and incidences of severe respiratory distress, including increased hospital admissions for breathing disorders, asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. The EPA has set regulatory levels of the release of PM2.5 and PM10 (particulates with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mm or 10 mm), but these metrics are based entirely on particle mass, rather than composition.
We are developing methods to quantify and evaluate the potential health impact of a variety of inhalation health hazards including combustion-derived particulate matter, metals, and materials that have the potential to be used as biological and chemical warfare agents. This work relies upon the response of cultured lung cells (type II epithelia and alveolar macrophages) to inhalation hazards. The response of cells is evaluated through a number of methods including traditional biochemical analyses that have been adapted for field use, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and others. These approaches are robust, provide sensitivity to wide range of compounds, and have the ability to be deployed outside of the laboratory.