Organochlorine Pesticides, Oxidative Stress Biomarkers, and Leukemia: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Exposure to pesticides has been linked to an elevated risk of leukemia. The present research aimed to evaluate the relationship between organochlorine (OC) pesticides and biomarkers of oxidative stress in patients with leukemia. This work was conducted on 109 patients with leukemia and 109 healthy controls. The serum concentrations of seven derivatives of OCs including alpha-hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), beta-HCH, gamma-HCH, 2,4-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), 4,4-DDT, 2,4-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and 4,4-DDE along with acetylcholinesterase (AChE), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), paraoxonase-1 (PON1), and catalase (CAT) activities as well as total antioxidant capacity (TAC), nitric oxide (NO), protein carbonyl (PC), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in all the subjects. Levels of OCs were remarkably higher in patients with leukemia compared with the controls (p<0.05). In addition, levels of SOD, AChE, GPx, PON1, and TAC were remarkably lower in patients with leukemia compared with controls (p<0.05). In contrast, MDA, NO, and PC concentrations were higher in patients with leukemia than in the controls (p<0.05). Moreover, the serum level of 4,4-DDE was negatively associated with GPx activity (p=0.038). Our findings suggest that OCs may play a role in the development of leukemia by disrupting the oxidant/antioxidant balance.

The Impact of Pesticides on Parkinson's Disease; A Case-Control Study

“…The escalation of OS could also lead to lipid peroxidation and an elevate in its end-products, such as MDA. It has been established that exposure to pesticides can augment MDA levels by triggering OS (40). The present study found that MDA levels were significantly higher in the patient group than in the control, suggesting that these patients may have been exposed to pesticides.…”

Exposición laboral a plaguicidas y la salud en agricultores Ciénega, Jalisco, México

“…Se ha documentado la asociación entre la exposición a plaguicidas y el riesgo leucemia (Foucault et al, 2021). La exposición a plaguicidas aumenta los niveles de especies reactivas de oxígeno (ROS), lo que conduce a un incremento del estrés oxidativo, el cual desempeña un papel importante en la aparición y progresión de leucemia al estimular la supervivencia celular, señalización de crecimiento y la inestabilidad genómica (Kreitz et al, 2019;Rafeeinia et al, 2022). Desafortunadamente, en México no existen estudios previos que evalúen leucemia en personas expuestas a plaguicidas.…”