Pesticide Exposure Increases Risk of Developing Parkinson’s Disease By Beyond Pesticides for Children’s Health Defense
Environmental triggers like occupational exposure to pesticides can prompt Parkinson’s disease in individuals with or without the genetic precursor.
Research at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) finds that pesticide exposure increases the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD), regardless of whether disease onset is idiopathic (spontaneous) or genetic (GBA genetic risk variant). Although the exact etiology of PD remains unknown, epidemiological and toxicological research repeatedly identifies exposure to pesticides, as well as specific gene-pesticide interactions, as significant adverse risk factors that contribute to PD.
Furthermore, this study, “Gene Variants May Affect PD Risk After Pesticide Exposure,” suggests that environmental triggers like occupational exposure to pesticides can prompt PD in individuals with or without the genetic precursor.
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This research demonstrates the importance of assessing disease etiology concerning occupational pesticide exposure, especially if disease triggers are overwhelmingly non-hereditary. Since not all individuals genetically predisposed to the disease develop PD, with only 10 to 15% of PD cases being genetic, government officials need to consider alternate etiological pathways that include environmental risk factors. Study researchers note, “‘Environmental exposures may have differential effects in different genotypes’ and may predispose people with PD to different symptom burden.”
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, with at least one million Americans living with PD and about 50,000 new diagnoses each year. The disease affects 50% more men than women and people with PD have a variety of symptoms, including loss of muscle control and trembling, anxiety and depression, constipation and urinary difficulties, dementia, and sleep disturbances. Over time, symptoms intensify, but there is no current cure for this fatal disease.
While only a small percentage of PD incidences are genetic and PD is quickly becoming “the world’s fastest-growing brain disease,” research like this is vital for examining other potential risk factors for developing Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers at UCSF, who presented this study at the Movement Disorder Society 23rd International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders (Virtual) 2020, assessed two groups of patients — those with and without a PD diagnosis. The authors analyzed individuals based on two cohort studies, the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI) — a longitudinal study of people with PD, including genetic subtypes — and Fox Insight (FI), where participants self-report PD symptoms online. PPMI assessments were in-person and thoroughly evaluated motor and nonmotor function, comparing patients who developed PD idiopathically with healthy individuals. The study further compared patients with PD who are carriers of the two most common gene-specific mutations (i.e., LRRK2 G2019S mutation, GBA mutations) with carriers of each mutation who did not have PD. Researchers collected responses from the FI report to assess the pesticide exposure frequency among PD-diagnosed and non-diagnosed participants, ages 57 to 66 years.
