Along with the wide use of pesticides in the world, the concerns over their health
impacts are rapidly growing. There is a huge body of evidence on the relation between
exposure to pesticides and elevated rate of chronic diseases such as different types
of cancers, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson, Alzheimer, and amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), birth defects, and reproductive disorders. There is also
circumstantial evidence on the association of exposure to pesticides with some other
chronic diseases like respiratory problems, particularly asthma and chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis and coronary
artery disease, chronic nephropathies, autoimmune diseases like systemic lupus erythematous
and rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and aging. The common feature
of chronic disorders is a disturbance in cellular homeostasis, which can be induced
via pesticides' primary action like perturbation of ion channels, enzymes, receptors,
etc., or can as well be mediated via pathways other than the main mechanism. In this
review, we present the highlighted evidence on the association of pesticide's exposure
with the incidence of chronic diseases and introduce genetic damages, epigenetic modifications,
endocrine disruption, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum
stress and unfolded protein response (UPR), impairment of ubiquitin proteasome system,
and defective autophagy as the effective mechanisms of action.
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.