New Environmental Pollutants, Aging and Age-Related Diseases, Volume II

Aging research increasingly recognizes the overwhelming contribution of environmental factors to the acceleration or mitigation of age-related physiological decline. As the global population ages—and environmental exposures diversify—the intersection of environmental health and geroscience is becoming a crucial frontier. While traditional pollutants have long been studied for their health impact, new environmental pollutants (NEPs)—including micro- and nanoplastics, pharmaceutical residues, advanced polymers, and next-generation industrial and personal care chemicals—represent uncharted challenges. Recent findings link these exposures to molecular hallmarks of aging, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, proteostasis imbalance, and chronic inflammation, yet the causal mechanisms remain poorly defined. Despite rapid technological advances in exposomics and metabolomics, evidence connecting NEPs to aging biomarkers or the onset of age-related diseases remains fragmented, necessitating an integrated, multi-level research perspective.This Research Topic aims to advance global understanding of the biological, epidemiological, and mechanistic connections between new environmental pollutants and the aging process, leveraging insights from the first volume while focusing on emerging analytical technologies and transdisciplinary methodologies. It seeks to identify which pollutant classes and exposure pathways exert the greatest influence on the molecular hallmarks of aging and to determine their roles in driving cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, metabolic, and neoplastic diseases in later life. The overarching goal is to foster evidence-based strategies that inform risk assessment, regulatory prioritization, and the design of interventions that promote healthy aging in increasingly complex environmental contexts.To gather further insights into the evolving science of environmental pollutants and aging, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:New classes of environmental pollutants and their mechanistic links to biomarkers and hallmarks of aging.Omics and systems toxicology approaches to characterize aging pathways modulated by environmental exposures.Epidemiological and exposome-based evidence of pollutant-related age-associated diseases.Translational and policy-oriented research for mitigating environmental contributions to unhealthy aging.Interventions and mitigation strategies to protect vulnerable aging populations from emerging pollutant exposures.Advances in methodological frameworks for long-term population studies integrating environmental, biological, and social determinants of aging. Topic editors: Xuefeng Lai, Yunquan Zhang, Chengyong Jia Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82969/new-environmental-pollutants-aging-and-age-related-diseases-volume-ii