In Vitro Assessment and Toxicological Prioritization of Pesticide Mixtures at Concentrations Derived from Real Exposure in Occupational Scenarios

Sabrina Tait, Gabriele Lori, Roberta Tassinari, Cinzia La Rocca and Francesca Maranghi
Additional contact information
Sabrina Tait: Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Gabriele Lori: Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Roberta Tassinari: Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Cinzia La Rocca: Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy
Francesca Maranghi: Center for Gender-Specific Medicine, Italian National Institute of Health, 00161 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-23

Abstract: Humans are daily exposed to multiple residues of pesticides with agricultural workers representing a subpopulation at higher risk. In this context, the cumulative risk assessment of pesticide mixtures is an urgent issue. The present study evaluated, as a case study, the toxicological profiles of thirteen pesticide mixtures used for grapevine protection, including ten active compounds (sulfur, potassium phosphonate, metrafenone, zoxamide, cyflufenamid, quinoxyfen, mancozeb, folpet, penconazole and dimethomorph), at concentrations used on field. A battery of in vitro tests for cell viability and oxidative stress endpoints (cytotoxicity, apoptosis, necrosis, ROS production, mitochondrial membrane potential, gene expression of markers for apoptosis and oxidative stress) was performed on two cellular models representative of main target organs of workers’ and population exposure: pulmonary A549 and hepatic HepG2 cell lines. All the endpoints provided evidence for effects also at the lower concentrations used. The overall data were integrated into the ToxPI tool obtaining a toxicity ranking of the mixtures, allowing to prioritize effects also among similarly composed blends. The clustering of the toxicological profiles further provided evidence of common and different modes of action of the mixtures. The approach demonstrated to be suitable for the purpose and it could be applied also in other contexts.

Keywords: agrochemicals; mixtures; cumulative risk assessment; prioritization; ToxPI; cell death; oxidative stress; occupational exposure (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: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5202/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5202/ (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:9:p:5202-:d:801677

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 ().