Study results were published May 16 in Nature Communications. This is one of the most commonly used herbicides in California, the researchers noted.Ī previous study had also implicated this pesticide in Parkinson's disease. When the team tested the toxicity of multiple pesticides commonly applied in cotton fields around the same time, they found that combinations involving trifluralin were most toxic. Most are used in the United States today, according to the study. These pesticides are structurally distinct and do not share a prior toxicity classification. For instance, insecticides are a class of pesticides that control insects, herbicides control weeds, and fungicides control fungal pathogens. Different pesticide products are designed for different target pests. Three are fungicides, both basic and pentahydrate copper sulfate and folpet. Pesticides A pesticide is a substance that is used to control pests by killing, repelling, or protecting against them.Three are herbicides: diquat, endothall, trifluralin.Four are insecticides: dicofol, endosulfan, naled, propargite.Researchers found 10 pesticides directly toxic to these neurons: They're a type of "blank slate" cell that can be reprogrammed into neurons that closely resemble those lost in Parkinson's disease. Krolewski tested the toxicity for most of those pesticides in dopaminergic neurons derived from Parkinson's patients using pluripotent stem cells. Richard Krolewski, an instructor of neurology at Harvard. The UCLA team shared the results for lab analysis with a team led by Dr. Most of these had not been previously studied for a potential link and are still in use. They were able to identify 53 pesticides that appeared to be implicated in Parkinson's. These patients were from California's Central Valley.Īfter determining long-term exposure for each person, the team used a pesticide-wide association analysis, testing each pesticide individually for its association with Parkinson's. Weedkillers, insecticides and other pesticides are used on golf courses, and many, such as 2,4-D, have been linked to health problems. The study team first looked at exposure history over decades for 288 pesticides in patients with Parkinson's disease who had participated in previous studies. Researchers also found that exposure to combinations of pesticides used in cotton farming was more toxic than any single pesticide in that group. Death of these neurons is a hallmark of Parkinson's, the study noted. They were directly toxic to dopaminergic neurons, which are involved in voluntary movement. The 10 pesticides her team identified included insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. Paul is a lead author of the study and an assistant professor of neurology at UCLA. "We were able to implicate individual agents more than any other study has before," Kimberly Paul said in a UCLA news release. Pesticide exposure has long been associated with Parkinson's, but investigators hadn't been able to pinpoint specific culprits.Ī team from the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard University paired epidemiology and toxicity screening to isolate which among the many thousands of pesticide products could be involved. Scientists say they've identified 10 pesticides that kill neurons involved in Parkinson's disease, marking a leap forward in their understanding of the movement disorder.
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