The Exposome and Healthy Aging: How Environmental Exposures Shape Lifespan and Healthspan

The question of why individuals age so differently, even within the same population, has long resisted a purely genetic answer. The exposome, the cumulative totality of environmental exposures an individual encounters from conception through late life, is increasingly recognised as a central and modifiable determinant of how biological aging unfolds. It encompasses ambient and indoor air pollutants, chemical contaminants, dietary inputs, occupational hazards, built environment characteristics, and socioeconomic conditions, all of which interact with host biology in ways that are temporally dynamic and biologically consequential. The gut microbiome, positioned at the direct interface between host and environment, is a further key mediator of these interactions and is increasingly recognised as central to how exposures translate into aging outcomes.The mechanistic links between environmental exposure and aging biology are now sufficiently well characterised to move beyond correlation. Long-term exposure to particulate matter, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals, and persistent organic pollutants has been associated with accelerated epigenetic aging, as measured by validated DNA methylation clocks, as well as with telomere attrition, mitochondrial dysfunction, shifts in immune competence, and microbiome dysbiosis, all of which are hallmarks of accelerated biological senescence. Critically, these exposures do not act uniformly: early developmental windows represent periods of particular biological plasticity during which environmental signals can programme aging trajectories that manifest only decades later, and mid-life cumulative burden appears especially consequential for cardiovascular, cognitive, and metabolic aging outcomes.This Research Topic invites original research, systematic reviews, and perspective articles that address the exposome as a driver of healthy or accelerated aging. Contributions are encouraged across exposome measurement methodology, multi-omics approaches linking environmental signals to biological age, microbiome-mediated pathways between environmental exposure and aging, life-course epidemiology of environmental exposure and healthspan, and translational work examining whether exposome modification through policy, built environment design, or clinical intervention can meaningfully extend years lived in good health. Studies in humans and in model organisms are both welcomed. The aim is to establish an integrative evidence base that positions the exposome as a tractable lever for healthy longevity research and practice. Topic editors: Niraj Kumar Singh, Janaina Lombello Santos Donadio Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83216/the-exposome-and-healthy-aging-how-environmental-exposures-shape-lifespan-and-healthspan