Telomere measurement in individuals occupationally exposed to pesticide mixtures in tobacco fields

Abstract

Occupational exposure to pesticides in tobacco fields causes genetic damage in farmers. The aim of this study was to analyze tobacco farmers chronically exposed to low doses of pesticides and nicotine (present in the tobacco leaves) in relation to absolute telomere length (aTL), and explore the influence of lifestyle characteristics, oxidative stress, and inorganic element levels. DNA was isolated from peripheral blood samples from agricultural workers and non-exposed individuals, and aTL was measured by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis. Oxidative stress (thiobarbituric acid reactive substances [TBARS], which measures oxidative damage to lipids; and toxic equivalent antioxidant capacity [TEAC], which measures total equivalent antioxidant capacity) was evaluated in serum, and inorganic element content was analyzed in whole blood through particle-induced X-ray emission technique. It was found that exposure to pesticides and tobacco smoking had significant effects on aTL. Individuals occupationally exposed to complex mixtures of pesticides in tobacco fields and individuals who smoked had decreased aTL compared with the non-exposed group. TBARS and TEAC were significantly elevated in the exposed group. There were no significant differences in inorganic elements. There was no evidence of an influence of age, gender, consumption of alcoholic beverages, or intake of fruits and vegetables on aTL within the groups. In addition, years of work in the tobacco field in the exposed group did not influence any of the variables analyzed. Although further studies were needed, these results suggested differences in telomere maintenance in tobacco farmers compared with the control group, indicating that telomere length may be a good biomarker of occupational exposure.

Occupational Exposure to Pesticides in Tobacco Fields: The Integrated Evaluation of Nutritional Intake and Susceptibility on Genomic and Epigenetic Instability

“…Recently, a consortium called Agricultural Health Study (AHS) has approached the influence of exposure to pesticides in crop farms to telomere length, although those studies are not clear which pesticides, whether as pure or mixture use, and which crop are being investigated [ 44 , 45 ]. Our group demonstrated shorter telomere length in tobacco farmers, exposed to both pesticides and nicotine from tobacco leaves, is associated with increased oxidative stress levels and trace and ultratrace element status [ 17 , 46 ]. Along with the available data in literature, the influence of pesticides on telomere length demonstrates that occupational exposure to pesticides presents a long-term effect on farmers [ 7 , 11 , 13 , 21 , 30 , 31 , 42 , 44 , 47 ].…”

“…They were also already evaluated either as single chemicals [ 6 , 7 , 12 ] or as mixtures (reviewed by [ 13 ]). The latter is the standard method of pesticide application in crop farming worldwide [ 13 ], including for Brazilian tobacco farmers [ 14 – 17 ]. Sensitive methods such as Comet assay [ 9 , 18 , 19 ], cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay [ 13 – 15 , 20 ], and buccal micronucleus (BMCyt) assay [ 18 , 19 , 21 ] have been successfully applied in identification of DNA damage as a result of occupational risk to pesticides.…”

Gold nanoparticle-based lateral flow immunoassay for the rapid detection of flumetralin in orange

“…6 Researchers have reported that flumetralin exposure increases DNA damage in mice and humans. 7,8 Additionally, flumetralin has significant genotoxic and cytotoxic effects on human peripheral blood lymphocytes in vitro 9 and is a suspected endocrine disruptor; therefore, it has been banned by the European Commission. 10,11 According to EU legislation, the maximum residue limit (MRL) of flumetralin is 0.01 mg kg −1 in fruits, vegetables, cereals, tea, coffee, milk, and eggs and 0.05 mg kg −1 in honey and spices.…”

Oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammation and gene expression in occupationally exposed university hospital anesthesia providers

“…Telomere length is considered a biomarker of aging (Vance et al ., 2018). Interestingly, there is increasing evidence that telomere length may be affected by environmental chemicals and occupational exposures (Wong et al ., 2014; Kahl et al ., 2016). However, the effects of occupational exposure to WAGs on telomere length have been poorly investigated (Braz et al ., 2020b).…”