John F. Alderete, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology, visits with Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D.
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Developing a chronic disease such as autism, cancer or Alzheimer’s disease goes beyond genetics. The environment to which a person is exposed and other factors, such as age and stage of development, also play major roles, said Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D., chief of the metastasis section of the laboratory of molecular carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Yerby Visiting Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“We need to focus on the big picture,” he said, “and emphasize the systems biology approach.” The systems biology approach involves simultaneously studying all the possible biological factors that can cause chronic disease and how they relate to each other. “This will help researchers study all the factors involved with why certain people get chronic diseases while others do not,” Olden said.

Olden, the most recent past director of the NIEHS and the first African-American director of a National Institute of Health institute, visited the Health Science Center Feb. 22 to speak to faculty and the community about these factors, which include a person’s genetic susceptibility, exposures to the environment, and their behavior, age or stage of development. He also met with researchers to discuss future directions for autism research at the Health Science Center.

“When we were working on the Human Genome Project we thought that once we mapped all the genomes we would know how all of these diseases are caused,” he said, “but that wasn’t the case. We now believe that you may have inherited a genetic predisposition to get a disease, but other factors also play a part,” Olden said.

Some of the environmental factors include industrial and agricultural chemicals, physical agents such as heat and radiation, foods and nutrients, prescription drugs, lifestyle choices, social and economic factors and biological agents.

Other factors, such as behavior, age or stage of development, are another area of study researchers will need to explore. For example, infectious diseases take a relatively short time to develop and they often are caused by a single agent that can be identified, isolated and treated. Chronic diseases, however, such as cancer, are often developed over many years and the patient is exposed to many factors, making underlying exposures difficult to identify, understand and prevent or treat. For example, in the case of autism, which develops in the first years of life, it may be easier to identify potential environmental contributors than it is for Alzheimer’s disease or cancer, because the timeframe between exposure and illness is likely to be much shorter.

To help researchers make better progress in understanding, treating and preventing chronic diseases, certain definitions and procedures will need to be standardized, Olden said, including:
∙ The development of a standard definition of the environment.
∙ The development of a standard way to measure environmental factors, both related to the physical environment and the social/behavioral environment.
∙ The development of innovative technologies to measure exposure to environmental factors.

“We’re probably having these problems with environmental factors because they have occurred quickly and recently and we have not had the chance to adapt to them,” he said. “The environment is changing faster than we can change.”

Dr. Olden’s presentation and consultation with Health Science Center researchers was sponsored by the Health Science Center’s Regional Academic Health Center at Harlingen, the South Central Area Health Education Center and the department of family and community medicine. These programs have partnered to investigate the development of educational programs focused on the effect of the environment on the overall health status of the South Texas community.

For more information about the Health Science Center’s autism research initiative, call 210-567-7407.