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BookmarkScienceDaily (Jul. 31, 2007) — Scientists in Japan and the United States are reporting development of the first test to detect a potential biomarker for human exposure to diesel exhaust, a major source of environmental pollution that is classified as a probable human carcinogen.
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In an article scheduled for the July 16 issue of ACS's Chemical Research in Toxicology, Akira Toriba and colleagues say the new method should be useful for monitoring human exposure to diesel exhaust and in studies of potential cancer risks associated with that exposure. Past research, the report notes, had predicted that certain "metabolites" -- compounds formed in the bodies of people exposed to diesel exhaust -- should appear in the urine. One of those compounds is known by the acronym 1-NP and its metabolites are OHNAAPs and OHNPs.
"This is the first study to demonstrate that the 1-NP metabolites, OHNAAPs and OHNPs, are excreted in the urine of human subjects exposed to environmental levels of 1-NP," the report explains. "These findings suggest that urinary 1-NP metabolites may be used as a representative biomarker for assessing exposure to diesel exhaust."
Article: "Identification and Quantification of 1-Nitropyrene Metabolites in Human Urine as a Proposed Biomarker for Exposure to Diesel Exhaust"
