The exposome, encompassing all external and internal environmental factors, provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex etiology of mental health. This study investigated the relationship between the external exposome during mid-adolescence and plasma proteomic biomarkers of mental health in 935 participants from the FinnTwin12 (Finland) and WALNUTs (Spain) cohorts. The mid-adolescent external exposome included 60 exposures. Biomarkers included 26 plasma proteins (mean age 22) for FinnTwin12 and 31 (mean age 13) for WALNUTs. The exposome-wide proteome-wide analysis revealed seven exposures (related to lifestyle, indoor environmental quality, natural environment, and family environment) linked to six proteins. Greenspace-related exposures were associated with proteins in both cohorts. However, these exposures showed no direct association with concurrent measures: the psychopathology factor or depressive symptoms. Twin analyses indicated genetic influences in some covariations between exposures and proteins. These findings provide evidence for mid-adolescents about the association between external environments and proteomic biomarkers of mental health.  

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was funded by European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Academy of Finland, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, European Union Regional Development Fund

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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The ethics committee of the Helsinki University Central Hospital District gave ethical approval for this work. The CEIC Parc Salut Mar Clinical Research Ethics Committee gave ethical approval for this work.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.