Chronic Pesticide Exposure in Farm Workers Is Associated with the Epigenetic Modulation of hsa-miR-199a-5p

Giuseppe Gattuso, Luca Falzone, Chiara Costa, Federica Giambò, Michele Teodoro, Silvia Vivarelli, Massimo Libra and Concettina Fenga
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Gattuso: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Luca Falzone: Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, 80131 Naples, Italy
Chiara Costa: Clinical and Experimental Medicine Department, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
Federica Giambò: CEMAD Digestive Disease Center, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “A. Gemelli” IRCCS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Roma, Italy
Michele Teodoro: Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, Occupational Medicine Section, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
Silvia Vivarelli: Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, Occupational Medicine Section, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy
Massimo Libra: Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy
Concettina Fenga: Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, Occupational Medicine Section, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: The increasing use of pesticides in intensive agriculture has had a negative impact on human health. It was widely demonstrated how pesticides can induce different genetic and epigenetic alterations associated with the development of different diseases, including tumors and neurological disorders. Therefore, the identification of effective indicators for the prediction of harmful pesticide exposure is mandatory. In this context, the aim of the study was to evaluate the modification of hsa-miR-199a-5p expression levels in liquid biopsy samples obtained from healthy donors and farm workers with chronic exposure to pesticides. For this purpose, the high-sensitive droplet digital PCR assay (ddPCR) was used to detect variation in the expression levels of the selected microRNA (miRNA). The ddPCR analyses revealed a significant down-regulation of hsa-miR-199a-5p observed in individuals exposed to pesticides compared to control samples highlighting the good predictive value of this miRNA as demonstrated by statistical analyses. Overall, the obtained results encourage the analysis of miRNAs as predictive biomarkers of chronic pesticide exposure thus improving the current strategies for the monitoring of harmful pesticide exposure.

Keywords: pesticide exposure; microRNAs; liquid biopsy; ddPCR; hsa-miR-199a-5p; epigenetics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7018/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7018/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7018-:d:834072

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().