Asociación de estrés oxidativo y daño genotóxico en adultos ocupacionalmente expuestos a plaguicidas. Revisión bibliográfica

Abstract

Occupational exposure to pesticides is one of the most important risk factors for the development of chronic diseases, its genotoxic potential and oxidative stress, being the possible mechanisms linked. The aim of the study was to establish the association between levels of antioxidant enzymes and the frequency of genotoxicity markers in adults occupationally exposed to pesticides. A literary research was carried out by searching for case-control articles, published from 2010 to 2021, in the digital databases of PubMed and Science Direct and the Google Scholar search engine. According to the literature evaluated, it is suggested that chronic exposure to pesticides leads to increased oxidative stress due to high levels of malondialdehyde and altered activity of the antioxidant enzymes catalase and superoxide dismutase; in addition to DNA damage revealed by the micronucleus test and comet assay. Some articles described conflicting results between the association of malondialdehyde level and DNA damage, as well as a negative connection with antioxidant enzymes. While the activity of cholinesterase enzymes was inconsistent, it may represent limited significance in occupational practice. The human populations occupationally exposed to pesticides have an increased toxic risk, manifested by an increase in the prevalence of oxidative stress and damage. However, the association between the two biomarkers is still unclear and more studies are needed to reach definitive conclusions and implement their use in epidemiological surveillance.