Occupational exposures, biomarkers and neurodegenerative diseases

Brain aging is marked by progressive changes and characterized at cellular, and organ dysfunction occurring in several areas of the brain. The main processes have all in common the deposition of proteins that the brain cannot metabolize anymore. While the aging processes is generalized and present in all individuals is characterized by great variability among individuals with a minority of subjects that are very healthy even in very old age. Epidemiological and laboratory studies suggest that environmental and occupation exposures years or decades before a diagnosis can trigger the processes that ultimately result in a neurodegenerative disease. The major areas of research in occupational epidemiology will be revised with the role of heavy metals, organic solvents, and pesticides as the main focus of this report. The public health especially in the field of occupational epidemiology of NDG diseases needs an integrated approach. This has been recently named "convergence science", a transdisciplinary approach for a research which frames in the same convergence view several fields from epidemiology to physics, informatics, ecology to solve complex questions, including the role of occupation, in biomedicine.