Tao Xue

Peking University | PKU · College of Environmental Science and Engineering

Purpose of Review This review summarizes the current knowledge (definition, source, formation, structure, chemical composition, and health effects) about atmospheric soot particles and aims to analyze their health effects combined with their structural characteristics. Recent Findings The new understanding of soot microstructure (analogous to redu...

The health effects of urbanization are controversial. The association between urbanization and reversible subclinical risks of cardiovascular diseases (e.g., electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities) has rarely been studied. This study aimed to assess the association between urbanization and ECG abnormalities in China based on the China National Strok...

The effect of O 3 on birthweight in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains unknown. A multicenter epidemiological study was conducted to evaluate the association between maternal peak-season O 3 exposure and birthweight, using 697,148 singleton newborns obtained in 54 LMICs between 2003 and 2019. We estimated the birthweight reduction att...

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated an association between short-term exposure to ambient temperature and mortality. However, the long-term effects of elevated temperature and temperature variability on mortality have remained somewhat elusive in epidemiological studies. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive epidemiological study utilizi...

China is now confronting the intertwined challenges of air pollution and climate change. Given the high synergies between air pollution abatement and climate change mitigation, the Chinese government is actively promoting synergetic control of these two issues. The Synergetic Roadmap project was launched in 2021 to track and analyze the progress of...

Backgrounds The vulnerability of fetuses differs at different developmental stages, in response to environmental stressors such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a ubiquitous air pollutant. Whether gestational age (GA) modifies the association between prenatal fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and fetal death remains unclear. Methods We s...

Background: In 2021, WHO suggested new target concentration limits for long-term exposure to ambient ozone. However, the harmful effects of ozone on vulnerable children have not been sufficiently studied. We aimed to evaluate the association between long-term ozone exposure and mortality in children younger than 5 years (hereafter denoted under-5...

The spatial disparity of air pollutants is one of the key influential factors for environmental inequality. We quantitatively evaluated the evolution of PM2.5 spatial disparity in China during 2013–2020, and investigated the associations between PM2.5 spatial disparity and economic indicators. Differences in PM2.5 between more- and less-polluted ci...

Introduction: Although physical activity (PA) has multiple health benefits, the inhaled dose of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) during PA may increase. The trade-off between harmful effects of PM2.5 exposure and protective effects of PA remain unclear. Our study aims to examine the joint effects of PA and PM2.5 exposure on blood pressure (BP) in C...

Background: Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to an increased risk of stroke. However, the effect of long-term exposure to PM2.5 and its major components on the functional disability of stroke patients remains unclear. Methods: Based on China National Stroke Screening Survey data obtained from 2013 to...

Background: Electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities are known to have prognostic value for heart conditions, while evidence on the relationship between long-term exposure to PM2.5 constituents and electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities is limited. This study aimed to quantify the association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 constituents and cha...

Ambient ozone (O3) pollution has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. However, few studies have addressed the effect of O3 exposure on electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities, a subclinical indicator of early damage to the cardiovascular system. This study aimed to examine the association between short-term exposure to O...

Objective: We investigated associations between source-specific fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and hemoglobin levels among children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Method: 36,675 children aged < 5 years were collected in 11 LMICs during 2017. We associated child hemoglobin with 20 source-specific PM2.5, and calculated chan...

Background Stent retriever, contact aspiration, and combined treatment are crucial mechanical thrombectomy strategies for patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Objectives The aim of this study was to compare and rank three different mechanical thrombectomy strategies for AIS due to large vessel occlusion by means of a Bayesian network meta-an...

Background: Systematic comparisons of the doses of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) for people with insomnia are limited. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Clinicaltrials. gov were systematically searched to identify relevant studies published before 31 October 2022. We assessed t...

Background and Purpose Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a remote, transient, and noninvasive procedure providing temporary ischemia and reperfusion. However, there is no comprehensive literature investigating the efficacy and safety of RIC for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive meta‐analy...

Background: A large gap exists between the latest Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQG 2021) and Chinese air quality standards for NO2. Assessing whether and to what extent air quality standards for NO2 should be tightened in China requires a comprehensive understanding of the spatiotemporal characteristics of population exposure to ambient NO2 and...

It is well recognized that carbon dioxide and air pollutants share similar emission sources so that synergetic policies on climate change mitigation and air pollution control can lead to remarkable co-benefits on greenhouse gas reduction, air quality improvement, and improved health. In the context of carbon peak, carbon neutrality, and clean air p...

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is associated with mortality and many other adverse health outcomes. In 2021, the World Health Organization established a new NO2 air quality guideline (AQG) (annual average <10 μg/m3). However, the burden of diseases attributable to long-term NO2 exposure above the AQG is unknown in China. Nitrogen oxide is a major air pollu...

Background: Low birthweight attributable to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure is a global issue affecting infant health, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, large-population studies of multiple LMICs are lacking, and little is known about whether the source of PM2.5 is a determinant of the toxic effect on birthw...

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association of ambient PM2.5 exposure with blood pressure (BP) at the population level in China. Methods: A total of 14,080 participants who had at least two valid blood pressure records were selected from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey during 2011-2015. Their long-term PM2.5 ex...

Background: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from different source sectors might differ in toxicity. However, data from large-scale studies on vulnerable children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are insufficient. Objective: To analyze the association of under-five death (U5D) with long-term exposure to PM2.5 from different sources. Metho...

Background In the 21st century, China experienced a rapid increase in urbanization, which has enhanced medical service availability, but has also increased exposure to adverse environmental and socioeconomic factors. Urbanization-related factors can affect the prognosis of stroke patients, particularly the progression of neurological disabilities....

Introduction The acute effects of air pollution and cardiovascular disease (CVD) have been studied, but very few studies have focused on spatiotemporally modeled exposure to air pollutants at the population level. This study aims to examine the short-term association of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), Ozone (O3), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Sulfur...

Objective This meta-analysis evaluated the diagnostic value of intraoperative brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) for predicting post-operative hearing loss. Methods Research articles in MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases were searched and selected up to 20 January 2022, and data were extracted following a standard procedure. A...

Background Stroke is one of the most prevalent diseases. Motor impairment in patients with stroke frequently affects the upper extremities. Several randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tried to prove whether or not the combination of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with virtual reality (VR) is superior to VR alone for upper extremi...

Gestational exposure to ambient fine particles (PM2.5) increases the risk of stillbirth, but the related disease burden is unknown, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We combine state-of-the-art estimates on stillbirths, and multiple exposure–response functions obtained from previous meta-analyses or derived by a self-matched...

Studies on the association of PM2.5 and its compositions with metabolic syndrome (MetS) were limited, and it was unclear which was the most hazardous composition. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between PM2.5 and its compositions with MetS and identified the most hazardous composition. In this study, we included 13,418 adults...

Background Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) produced by landscape fires is thought to be more toxic than that from non-fire sources. However, the effects of “fire-sourced” PM2.5 on acute respiratory infection (ARI) are unknown. Methods We combined Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 48 countries with gridded global estimates of PM2.5 conc...

The independent associations of air pollution and Physical activity (PA) with metabolic syndrome (MetS) were inconsistent, while the joint associations between PA and air pollution with MetS were still unknown. We aimed to (1) further confirm the independent associations of PA and air pollution; (2) examine whether PA would attenuate the positive a...

Physical activity (PA) would increase the inhalation rate and thereby inhaled dose of air pollutants. However, it's still uncertain whether the effects of air pollutants on lung function are attenuated by PA, especially in the high-polluted areas. We aimed to disentangle the interaction between air pollution and PA on lung function among healthy ad...

Introduction Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to increases in the incidence of lung cancer. However, more evidence is needed to conclude its effects on lung cancer survival. Objectives The study aimed to explore the relationship between long-term PM2.5 exposure and lung cancer survival and evaluated the...

The U-shaped association between health outcomes and ambient temperatures has been extensively investigated. However, such analyses cannot fully estimate the mortality burden of climate change because the features of the association (e.g., minimum mortality temperature) vary with human adaptation; thus, they are not generalizable to different locat...

Exposure to ozone (O3) is associated with stroke incidence and mortality. However, whether long-term exposure to O3 is associated with post-stroke neurological disability remains unknown. This study investigated the relationship based on the longitudinal analysis of China National Stroke Screening Survey (CNSSS), which included 65,778 records of st...

China is striving to build a “Beautiful China” characterized by clean air. The country has committed to further reducing its national mean fine particle (PM2.5) concentration by 10% from 2020 to 2025, following the substantial improvements in its air quality during the past decade. Meanwhile, the “Healthy China” mission has pledged to increase the...

Background Exposure to landscape fire smoke (LFS) is linked to child mortality and birthweight. It is unknown whether gestational exposure to LFS affects child survival rate. We aimed to link under-five death (U5D) to gestational LFS exposure by performing a causal mediation analysis based on birthweight. Method We conducted a sibling-matched case...

Air pollution is a major trigger of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Dysregulation of the neuroendocrine hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and sympathetic-adrenal medullary (SAM) axes is essential in progression of COPD. However, it is not clear whether air pollution exposure is associated with neuroendocrine responses in individual...

Background Studies show that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) contributes to childhood obesity. However, evidence on the effects of its constituents on obesity has not been explored. Methods Using multistage stratified cluster sampling, we enrolled 41,439 school-age children (aged 6–17 years) from a representative nationwide survey of 30 provinces...

Background The pathophysiological mechanisms of air pollution-induced atherosclerosis are incompletely understood. Sphingolipids serve as biological intermediates during atherosclerosis development by facilitating production of proatherogenic apoB (apolipoprotein B)-containing lipoproteins. We explored whether sphingolipids mediate the proatherogen...

Background Gestational exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of fetal death in recent studies, but earlier studies in the past century have usually reported a non-significant association. As such, it remains unknown whether this adverse effect of PM2.5 exposure varies with time. Metho...

Background Despite cumulative evidence reports the interaction effects of physical activity (PA) and air pollution on lung function, the findings have been inconsistent. We aimed to identify the threshold values that reverse the beneficial effects of PA on lung function. Methods This multistage probability sampling study examined 13,032 individual...

Background Recently, several randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about direct mechanical thrombectomy (d-MT) vs. intravenous thrombolysis before MT (IVT + MT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients have been reported. This study aims to investigate the differences in efficacy and safety of MT with or without IVT for the treatment of patients with...

The World Health Organization has issued new air quality guidelines (AQG). Based on 2020 data, achieving the new AQG for PM2.5 could prevent an additional 285,000 chronic deaths and 13,000 acute deaths, across China, compared with the previous AQG. The new AQG can better protect health but cannot be achieved without coordinated air-pollution-contro...

Background Ambient particulate matter (PM), especially its carbonaceous composition black carbon (BC) increases cardiometabolic risks, yet the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Ceramides (Cer; a class of sphingolipids) are biological intermediates in glucose metabolism. Objectives To explore whether Cer metabolism mediates impaire...

Background Air pollution might accelerate cognitive ageing; it is unclear whether large-scale interventions, such as China's Clean Air Act (CCAA), can mitigate cognitive deterioration. We aimed to evaluate the effect of CCAA on changes in cognitive function in older adults. Methods In this population-based, quasi-experimental study, we did a diffe...

Background Over 3 million people die every year from diseases caused by exposure to outdoor PM2·5 air pollution, and more than a quarter of these premature deaths occur in China. In addition to clean-air policies that target pollution emissions, climate policies aimed at reducing fossil-fuel CO2 emissions (eg, to avoid 1·5°C of warming) might also...

Long-term exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with increased obesity risk, while physical activity (PA) is a suggested protective factor. This raises a dilemma whether the increased dose of PM2.5 due to PA-intensified ventilation would offset the benefits of PA. Using a national representative sample, we aim to (1) ascertain inclusive findings of...

Evaluating ozone levels at high resolutions and accuracy is crucial for understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of ozone distribution and assessing ozone exposure levels in epidemiological studies. The national models with high spatiotemporal resolutions to predict ground ozone concentrations are limited in China so far. In this study, we...

Based on the exposure data sets from the Tracking Air Pollution in China (TAP, http://tapdata.org.cn/), we characterized the spatiotemporal variations in PM2.5 and O3 exposures and quantified the long- and short-term exposure related premature deaths during 2013–2020 with respect to the two-stage clean air actions (2013–2017 and 2018–2020). We find...

Background Exposure to air pollution is associated with several chronic diseases and subclinical processes that could subsequently contribute to physical disability. However, whether and to what extent air pollution exposure is associated with objective measures of physical functioning remains understudied. Methods We used longitudinal data from t...

Background Migraine is one of the most common neurological diseases around the world and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) plays an important role in its pathophysiology. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies blocking the CGRP ligand or receptor in episodic and chronic migraine. Objective The obje...

Background Indocyanine green video angiography (ICG–VA) is a safe and effective instrument to assess changes in cerebral blood flow during cerebrovascular surgery. After ICG-VA, FLOW 800 provides a color-coded map to directly observe the dynamic distribution of blood flow and to calculate semiquantitative blood flow parameters later. The purpose of...

Background Allergic rhinitis (AR) is one of the most common allergic diseases in the world, and usually persists throughout the activity. Epidemiological studies have shown a positive association between air pollution and allergic rhinitis. However, we could not find any meta-analysis of the risk of air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, O3 and CO)...

Background Previous studies have reported inverse associations between urban greenness and mortality. However, findings regarding contemporaneous and cumulative average greenness exposure are inconsistent. A potential explanation is the weak effects of greenness among the general population. This study assessed the associations between contemporane...

Background Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5 or FPM) may cause adverse effects on cardiovascular diseases. However, evidence that whether improved air quality can decrease blood pressure (BP) in humans is still needed from a large population study. Methods Our study aimed to investigate the association of population ambient PM2....

Background Maternal exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a potential risk factor for pregnancy loss, but the extant findings are inconsistent. One reason for the inconsistency is the difficulty of distinguishing spontaneous from induced pregnancy losses, particularly in countries with planning policies. Objective To examine the a...

Anemia is a highly prevalent disease among older populations, with multiple adverse health outcomes, and particles exposure is a potential risk factor for anemia. However, evidence on associations of exposure to particles with small size with anemia-related blood cell parameters levels in the elderly is limited, and the underlying mechanisms are un...

The efficacy and safety of dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs) for primary insomnia have been well verified in several large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) over the past several decades. However, there have been few systematic comparisons of different DORAs, and the best DORA for insomniacs has remained unclear. Here, Medline, Embase, Coc...

Air pollution has become a major issue in China, especially for traffic-related pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Current studies in China at the national scale were less focused on NO2 exposure and consequent health effects than fine particulate exposure, mainly due to a lack of high-quality exposure models for accurate NO2 predictions ov...

Background Landscape fire smoke (LFS) has been associated with reduced birthweight, but evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is rare. Methods Here, we present a sibling-matched case–control study of 227,948 newborns to identify an association between fire-sourced fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and birthweight in 54 LMICs from...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common, chronic, progressive, debilitating neurodegenerative disease. The current levodopa treatment requires the addition of other drugs, such as catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) inhibitors, to alleviate motor fluctuations in advanced PD. Therefore, a theoretical reference for treatment is urgently needed. In this...

Objectives: The clinical results caused by spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) are disastrous to most patient. As tranexamic acid (TXA) has been proved to decrease the influence of ICH, we conducted this research to explore the function of TXA for the prognosis of ICH compared with placebo. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Libr...

Between 2002 and 2017, China’s gross domestic product grew by 284%, but this surge was accompanied by a similarly prodigious growth in energy consumption, air pollution and air pollution-related deaths. Here we use a combination of index decomposition analysis and chemical transport modelling to quantify the relative influence of eight different fa...

Background The prevalence of landscape fires has increased, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We aimed to assess the impact of exposure to landscape fire smoke (LFS) on the health of children. Methods We conducted a sibling-matched case-control study and selected 552 155 children (aged <18 years) from Demographic and...

Air pollution has altered the Earth’s radiation balance, disturbed the ecosystem, and increased human morbidity and mortality. Accordingly, a full-coverage high-resolution air pollutant data set with timely updates and historical long-term records is essential to support both research and environmental management. Here, for the first time, we devel...

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, which has a resource-dependent economy dominated by clusters of heavy industries, has long borne the highest PM2.5 pollution levels in China, prompting serious concerns about the region's disease burden. Pollution-intensive industries in the BTH region not only meet local consumer demands but also those of ot...

Background Although epidemiological studies on the effect of chronic fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure on lipid disorders have been conducted, it is unclear if improved air quality is associated with beneficial changes in the blood lipid profile. In China, clean air actions introduced in 2013 have rapidly reduced the concentration of ambient...

Interactions between climate change and anthropogenic activities result in increasing numbers of open fires, which have been shown to harm maternal health. However, few studies have examined the association between open fire and pregnancy loss. We conduct a self-comparison case-control study including 24,876 mothers from South Asia, the region with...

Background: The efficacy and safety of fingolimod for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) had been well verified in several large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) during the past decade. However, there are fewer systematic comparisons of different doses of fingolimod and whether the dose of 0.5 mg/d is the optimal one still remains to...

Susceptibility of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction associated with exposure to metals in ambient fine particles (PM2.5, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 µm) remains poorly evidenced. Based on the COPDB (COPD in Beijing) panel study, we aimed to compare the associatio...

Air pollution may accelerate cognitive aging, it is unclear whether large-scale interventions by Clean Air Act can mitigate the cognitive deterioration. Here, we conducted a difference-in-differences analysis based on Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey during 2014 and 2018. Intervention group came from where the government set a strict t...

Landscape fire smoke (LFS) has been associated with reduced birthweight, but evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is rare. Here, we present a sibling-matched case– control study of 227,948 newborns to identify an association between fire-sourced fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) and birthweight in 54 LMICs from 2000 to 2014. We se...

Social and mental stressors associated with the pandemic of a novel infectious disease, e.g., COVID-19 or SARS may promote long-term effects on child development. However, reports aimed at identifying the relationship between pandemics and child health are limited. A retrospective study was conducted to associate the SARS pandemic in 2003 with deve...

Understanding the spread of SARS-CoV-2 provides important insights for control policies such as social-distancing interventions and vaccine delivery in the post-pandemic era. In this work, we take the advantage of action tracking reports of confirmed COVID-19 patients, which contain the mobility trajectory of patients. We analyzed reports of patien...

Ambient air pollution is a major risk factor for the prevalence and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Based on the COPDB (COPD in Beijing) panel study, whole-blood transcriptomes were repeatedly measured in 48 COPD patients and 62 healthy participants. Ambient mass concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), tempe...

Background and Purpose: Fluoxetine is a drug commonly used to treat mental disorders, such as depression and obsessive–compulsive disorder, and some studies have shown that fluoxetine can improve motor and function recovery after stroke. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy and safety of fluoxetine in the treatment of...

What is already known about this topic? The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic potentially affected prenatal care quality and maternal and fetal outcomes globally. What is added by this report? During COVID-19 pandemic period, the rates of caesarean sections (CS) and preterm birth for uninfected pregnant women increased slightly in areas...

Certain studies suggest that air pollution could be a risk factor for obesity, but the evidence on the association between air pollution exposure and obesity in adults is limited. This study aims to examine the association between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and obesity-related traits in Chinese adults. Thus, a cross-secti...

Background: Exposure to ambient air particulate matter (PM) is a risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases. The knowledge of the underlying mechanisms is still evolving, but systemic inflammation and oxidative stress are central to the ability of PM to induce cardiometabolic effects. Oxylipins derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are bio...

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has become a major global health concern. Although modeling exposure to PM2.5 has been examined in China, accurate long-term assessment of PM2.5 exposure with high spatiotemporal resolution at the national scale is still challenging. We aimed to establish a hybrid spatiotemporal modeling framework for PM2...

Background Exposure to air pollution, a leading contributor to the global burden of disease, can cause economic losses. Driven by clean air policies, the air quality in China, one of the most polluted countries, has improved rapidly since 2013. This has enabled a unique, quasi-experiment to assess the economic impact of air pollution empirically....

Approximately half of satellite aerosol retrievals are missing that limits the application of satellite data in PM2.5 pollution monitoring. To obtain spatiotemporally continuous PM2.5 distributions, various gap-filling methods have been developed, but have rarely been evaluated. Here, we reviewed and summarized four types of gap-filling strategies,...