Biological Effects of Negative Air Ions on Human Health and Integrated Multi-omics to Identify Biomarkers: A literature review

Abstract

Abstract Environmental pollution seriously affects human health. As one of the factors to evaluate air quality, negative air ions (NAIs) are widely considered a marker by scholars due to their unique biological function since their discovery at the end of the 19th century. NAIs are produced from alterations in the atmosphere and weather phenomena by natural radioactivity or combustion processes and can also be generated by air ionizers sold commercially. Therefore, much interest has been given to the possible effects of NAIs on human health and well-being. Research has shown that exposure to NAIs may benefit our health, such as cardiovascular system, respiratory system, and mood, but the conclusions are inconsistent. This study summarizes and prospects the research progress of domestic and foreign scholars on the generation, temporal, and spatial dynamic patterns of NAIs concentration and their relationship with human health from the overview aspects of NAIs, and biological effects of NAIs. Subsequently, we focused on the biological mechanism of NAIs based on omics as these are relatively new methods with some advantages in studying the action of NAIs.