Paraquat is a common weed killer causing Parkinson’s Disease.
Scientific researchers have linked Paraquat to Parkinson's Disease. Over 30 countries have banned Paraquat. Studies have found an association between two commonly used agrochemicals (paraquat and maneb) and Parkinson's disease. Now a professor has determined that low-level exposure to the pesticides disrupts cells in a way that mimics the effects of mutations known to cause Parkinson's disease. Adding the effects of the chemicals to a predisposition for Parkinson's disease drastically increases the risk of disease onset.
Current U.S. pesticide regulations don’t always account for the effects of repeated low doses when setting limits. At the same time, animal studies assessing exposure risk rarely examine the effect of inhaled pesticides.
With this in mind, researchers at the University of Rochester, in New York, sought to compare the amount of paraquat that accumulated in various organs of mice when inhaling the substance at low levels, as opposed to the more common injection route.
“Inhalation can provide a direct route of entry to the brain,” Timothy Anderson, a graduate student and first author of the study, said in a university press release.
“If you inhale something and it goes into your nose,” he added, “it can actually enter the neurons responsible for sense of smell, and travel into the brain.”
These researchers also assessed changes related to sense of smell in exposed mice. In addition to being an early sign of Parkinson’s, olfactory impairment may serve as a sensitive indicator of pesticide exposure in humans.
Over 28 days, male and female mice were exposed to aerosolized paraquat for four hours a day, five days a week. At predefined time points, Anderson and colleagues measured paraquat levels in mice lungs and kidneys, and in four regions of the animals’ brain — the olfactory bulb, striatum, midbrain, and cerebellum.
Information courtesy of parkinsonsnewstoday.com
