Pesticides and Human Health: Antioxidants and Heat Shock Proteins as Modulators of Cell Survival Signal

Abstract

In the modern times, insecticides have grown to be an essential part of the atmosphere. Their full-size use in public health packages and agriculture has ended in capability environmental pollution and health risks, which relies upon their residual quantity and toxicity. The widespread uses cause general population to low dose of continual exposure of insecticides through meals and environment. The residue evaluation of human specimen suggests an increasing trend within the ranges of insecticides in serum, adipose tissue, breast milk, urine and others. Implications of pesticides residues on human fitness following subchronic publicity are but to be comprehensively answered. Subjection to insecticides can be closely associated with neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, immunotoxicity, genotoxicity and injurious reproductive effects. Pesticides leads to Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) generation in significant quantities, resulting in oxidative stress and cellular damages. Findings of research have discovered a concomitant genotoxic and apoptotic effect of the pesticides in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs). Since genotoxic consequences of pesticides on humans cannot be overlooked, therefore identification and implication of protective measures are urgently needed. This have been tested that PBMCs go through dose-structured apoptotic cell demise following pesticide exposure and additionally highlights the effectiveness of various antioxidants in counteracting pesticide-precipitated cytotoxicity. Heat Shock Proteins (HSPs) have emerged as an antiapoptotic molecules which counteract cytotoxicity. The inducible expression analysis of HSPs ought to make contributions to the human PBMCs to get over the toxic results of subchronic pesticide exposure. Though the linkage between cellular events of apoptosis is thought, the molecular mechanism highlighting the precise function of HSP in pesticide-mediated cytotoxicity yet stays to be comprehensively replied. To better understand this mechanism, different antioxidant and HSP inducers have been employed, and also highlighted their attenuating effects towards the apoptotic capacity of such pesticides. This review article therefore, focuses on the fact that antioxidants and HSP inducers efficiently protect cells, emphasising their role in pesticide-induced toxicity at molecular and cellular level as well as their possible use as therapeutic intervention.

Keywords

• apoptosis
• cytotoxicity
• environmental chemicals
• oxidative stress