Will CIRM research fill knowledge gap on wildfire particulate connection to brain damage?

When some Los Angeles area residents returned to homes that survived the wildfires, it felt like they were hit by an “invisible injury.” Their couches, rugs and even walls reeked. The emissions generated by smoke-linked particles and chemicals drove some from their homes once again.

Max Pellegrini, who lives east of Altadena, said that the inside of his home was coated in a quarter inch of “dirt and ash and whatever else,” the New York Times reported.

“He started cleaning up the house and raking leaves until his breathing grew labored and his head started to feel heavy. ‘I realized I was actually breathing this crap,’” he said.

Pellegrini suffered from a kind of life-threatening air pollution that is now being reported widely as fire refugees return to what is left of their homes. Much of the pollution comes in the form of tiny airborne particles, PM2.5 or smaller, that are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders, including intellectual disability and autism.

A 2024 study linked the tiny particles from wildfires to up to 56,000 premature deaths in California over an 11-year period ending in 2018.

What is less well known is just how the particulates infiltrate and damage the brain. That’s where Stuart Lipton and California’s stem cell and gene therapy agency come in. Last summer, the agency awarded $17.4 million to Lipton and his Scripps Research team to fill in knowledge gaps about that process. The idea is to understand the basic mechanisms so that treatments can be developed.

The 15 out-of-state scientists who evaluated Lipton’s application for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the official name of the stem cell agency, gave his work high marks.

Lipton’s project could have “direct implications for public health policies and clinical practices by providing scientific evidence of the links between air pollution and neuropsychiatric disorders. This could lead to improved screening, prevention strategies, and targeted therapies based on environmental risk factors,” a CIRM summary of the review said.

Asked about the significance of the $17 million grant, Jonathan Thomas, president and CEO of CIRM, told Capitol Weekly, “The impact of wildfires and air pollution on human health, particularly on brain-related diseases, is an urgent concern….(and CIRM) is helping to uncover how fine particulate matter from wildfires, vehicle emissions, and industrial sources affects stem cells and brain development.”

Lipton’s work, Thomas said, “suggests that these pollutants trigger harmful molecular changes which may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease in older individuals and increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability in children.”

“This research comes at a critically relevant time as California continues to face devastating wildfires and worsening air quality, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities,” Thomas said. “Understanding the long-term neurological consequences of air pollution is essential to developing interventions that protect public health now and in the future.”

Air pollution research does not come ordinarily to CIRM, which is focused on stem cells and gene therapies under the terms of the two ballot initiatives that created and finance it. CIRM has awarded about $4 billion for research since 2004 but notably has yet to finance a stem cell treatment that is available to the general public.

Voters provided CIRM with $8.5 billion, which the state borrows. Interest costs boost the total price tag for taxpayers to an estimated $12 billion. CIRM has about $4 billion left and recently readjusted its priorities to boost the impact of its work. After the final $4 billion runs out, CIRM will go out of business unless it is refinanced.

Possible successful treatments that might emerge from Lipton’s work and others would boost any future ballot measure campaign.

Lipton, who is internationally known for his research and drug development, said CIRM’s funding was critical. “To marshal this degree of resources is really unique…. CIRM has done something no other group could do right now, and I’m deeply appreciative.”

Lipton said that the four-year project will move quickly enough to generate interim results that could lead to advances toward treatments before the award ultimately terminates.

Jensen is a retired newsman and has covered CIRM for more than 20 years on his newsletter, the California Stem Cell Report. He authored the book, “California’s Great Stem Cell Experiment,” in 2020.