Role of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the cardiorenal system: Unraveling crosstalk from the network of pollutants and phenotypes

Although per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been frequently linked to cardiovascular and renal disease separately, evidence remains scarce regarding their systematic effect. Therefore, we recruited 546 newly diagnosed acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients and detected seven myocardial enzymes and six kidney function biomarkers. Twelve PFAS were also assessed with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Generalized linear model and restricted cubic spline model were applied to single pollutant analysis. Quantile g-computation was used for mixture analysis. Network model was utilized to identify central and bridge nodes of pollutants and phenotypes. In the present study, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid was positively associated with uric acid (UA) (beta= 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01, 0.07), and perfluorobutanoic acid was negatively associated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (beta= -0.04, 95% CI: -0.07, -0.01) but positively associated with UA (beta= 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.06). In mixture analysis, each quantile increase in the PFAS mixture was significantly associated with UA (beta= 0.08, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.11). Network analysis revealed that perfluorooctanoate, UA, and myoglobin were denoted as bridge nodes, and the first principal component of lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase- myocardial band was identified as the node with the highest strength and expected influence. This study investigates the systematic impact of PFAS exposure through cardiorenal interaction network, which highlights that PFAS may serve as an upstream approach in UA-modulated cardiorenal network to affect cardiorenal system comprehensively.