Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy.
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Istituto Nazionale Tumori IRCCS Fondazione G. Pascale, 80131 Naples, Italy.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 8;19(12):7018. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19127018.
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.
集约化农业中农药使用的增加对人类健康产生了负面影响。广泛证明了农药如何诱导与不同疾病（包括肿瘤和神经紊乱）发展相关的不同遗传和表观遗传改变。因此，必须确定有效的指标来预测有害农药暴露。在这种情况下，该研究的目的是评估从健康供体和慢性接触农药的农场工人获得的液体活检样本中 hsa-miR-199a-5p 表达水平的变化。为此，使用高灵敏度液滴数字 PCR 检测法（ddPCR）来检测所选 microRNA（miRNA）表达水平的变化。ddPCR 分析显示，与对照样本相比，暴露于农药的个体中 hsa-miR-199a-5p 的表达显著下调，统计分析表明该 miRNA 具有良好的预测价值。总体而言，获得的结果鼓励将 miRNA 作为慢性农药暴露的预测生物标志物进行分析，从而改进当前监测有害农药暴露的策略。
