Secondary organic aerosol from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon modulates glioma proliferation

Air pollution is associated with multiple adverse health outcomes, yet its role in the progression of cerebral malignancies remains unclear. Here, a novel aerosol-organoid exposure platform (AOEP) is developed to investigate the adverse effects from secondary organic aerosol (SOA) on the prognosis of glioblastoma. Naphthalene SOA (NSOA), typically emerged from traffic and combustion-related sources, is photochemically synthesized and applied to AOEP as a type of representative anthropogenic air pollution here. Integrating patient-derived tumor organoid models and different glioma cells (U87 and U251) via AOEP, we observe that exposure to highly oxygenated SOA boosts cancer cell growth by triggering an upregulated expression of ALDH1A3, which strengthens the viability of glioma cells by blocking ferroptosis. The low survival rates in patients with high ALDH1A3 levels suggest the key role of this gene playing in glioma progression. Bridging atmospheric science and oncology, our work illustrates high potential for this novel AOEP being applied in future aerosol exposure assessment. Results from this AOEP-based study underscore ALDH1A3 as a therapeutic target for glioma treatment regarding environmental risks, highlighting the urgent need to regulate anthropogenic air pollution in the atmosphere, especially for secondarily evolved and highly oxygenated aerosol during regional transport out of a health perspective.