| Summary: | Several studies have shown that farm dust, mainly containing hay and straws found in rural areas do contain certain compounds that have the ability to reduce the prevalence of respiratory diseases and infections, especially during early childhood days. With increasing urbanisation, exposure to such farm dust is reduced and thus there has been an increase in asthmatic cases across the world. This is due to higher exposure of house dust, commonly found in the urban environment, contains harmful particulate matter. Other than respiratory diseases, there is also an increasing trend on dust affecting other organs such as the liver. Hence it is important to understand the microbial diversity of farm dust and house dust to identify the beneficial and harmful compounds present. In this project, effect-direct analysis methods and tools will be used to identify and characterise dust found in rural and urban environments. Farm dust has shown a significant amounts of protein compounds that could explain the lower prevalence of contracting respiratory disease while house dust shows a lower amount of protein compounds present. Lung and liver cells will be cultured and tested together with the dust samples to identify its toxicity characterisation. Though both cells serve different functions in the human body, they do show similar cytotoxicity reactions. Therefore the use of effect-direct analysis has showed significant findings that higher concentration of protein compounds in farm dust as compared to house dust could be the reason for beneficial effects in lung cells. Liver cells having a natural cleansing function showed a slightly higher cytotoxicity reaction. In conclusion, more research and experiment need to be done to characterise the dust sample for its beneficial protein compounds and other similar methods could be used to identify effects of the dust on both lungs and liver cells.
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