Neurotoxicology

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The refinement of brain morphology extends across childhood, and exposure to environmental toxins during this period may alter typical trends. Radon is a highly common radiologic toxin with a well-established role in cancer among adults. However, effects on developmental populations are understudied in comparison. This study investigated whether home radon exposure is associated with altered brain morphology in youths. Fifty-four participants (6-14yrs, M=10.52yrs, 48.15% male, 89% White) completed a T1-weighted MRI and home measures of radon...

The dinoflagellate Karenia brevis is a causative agent of red tides in the Gulf of Mexico and generates a potent family of structurally related brevetoxins that act via the voltage-sensitive Na+ channel. This project was undertaken to better understand the neurotoxicology and kdr cross-resistance to brevetoxins in house flies by comparing the susceptible aabys strain to ALkdr (kdr) and JPskdr (super-kdr). When injected directly into the hemocoel, larvae exhibited rigid, non-convulsive paralysis consistent with prolongation of sodium channel currents, the known mechanism of action of brevetoxins...

Pyridine alkylsulfone derivatives typified by oxazosulfyl (Sumitomo Chemical Company Ltd.) and compound A2 (Syngenta) represent a new class of insecticides, with potent activity against several insect orders. Whilst the MOA of this class has been attributed to interaction with the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC), here we present strong evidence that their toxicity to insects is mediated primarily through inhibition of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT). Alkylsulfone intoxication in insects is characterised by (i) a reduction in cholinergic synaptic transmission efficiency demonstrated by a depression of cercal afferent activity in giant-interneurone preparations of American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), (ii) selective block of cholinergic-transmission dependent post-synaptic potentials in the Drosophila giant-fibre pathway and (iii) abolition of miniature excitatory post-synaptic currents (mEPSCs) in an identified synapse in Drosophila larvae...

Neurotoxicity, stemming from exposure to various chemical, biological, and physical agents, poses a substantial threat to the intricate network of the human nervous system. This article explores the implications of ferroptosis, a regulated form of programmed cell death characterized by iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, in environmental-induced neurotoxicity. While apoptosis has historically been recognized as a primary mechanism in neurotoxic events, recent evidence suggests the involvement of additional pathways, including ferroptosis...

Aversive caregiving in early life is a risk factor for aberrant brain and behavioral development. This outcome is related to epigenetic dysregulation of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) gene. The Bdnf gene encodes for BDNF, a neurotrophin involved in early brain development, neural plasticity, learning, and memory. Recent work suggests that exercise may be neuroprotective in part by supporting BDNF protein and gene expression, making it an exciting target for therapeutic interventions. To our knowledge, exercise has never been studied as a therapeutic intervention in preclinical rodent models of caregiver maltreatment...

BACKGROUND: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a significant health concern characterized by recurrent upper airway blockages during sleep, causing various health issues. There's growing evidence of a link between air pollution and OSA, though research results have been inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to consolidate and examine data on the relationship between air pollution and OSA's risk and severity. METHODS: A literature search across PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science was conducted until January 10, 2024...

BACKGROUND: Organophosphates and pyrethroids are two major groups of insecticides used for crop protection worldwide. They are neurotoxicants and exposure during vulnerable windows of brain development may have long-term impact on human neurodevelopment. Only few longitudinal studies have investigated associations between prenatal exposure to these substances and intelligence quotient (IQ) at school age in populations with low, mainly dietary, exposure. OBJECTIVE: To investigate associations between maternal urinary concentrations of insecticide metabolites at gestational week 28 and IQ in offspring at 7-years of age...

Neurotoxicological research faces the challenge of linking biological changes resulting from exposures to neuronal function. An additional challenge is understanding cell-type specific differences and selective vulnerabilities of distinct neuronal populations to toxic insults. Single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) allows for measurement of the transcriptome of individual cells. This makes it a valuable tool for validating and characterizing cell types present in multicell type samples in complex tissue or cell culture models, but also for understanding how different cell types respond to toxic insults...

BACKGROUND: Increasing cannabis use among pregnant people and equivocal evidence linking prenatal cannabis exposure to adverse outcomes in offspring highlights the need to understand its potential impact on pregnancy and child outcomes. Assessing cannabis use during pregnancy remains a major challenge with potential influences of stigma on self-report as well as detection limitations of easily collected biological matrices. OBJECTIVE: This descriptive study examined the concordance between self-reported (SR) cannabis use and urine drug screen (UDS) detection of cannabis exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy and characterized concordant and discordant groups for sociodemographic factors, modes of use, secondhand exposure to cannabis and tobacco, and alcohol use and cotinine positivity...

Melamine-tainted products have been found in the market and raised issues about food safety. Recent studies done in rodents and humans demonstrated the toxicities of melamine, especially in causing kidney damage and bladder stone formation. However, very few studies assessed its behavior toxicity in organisms, including fish. Therefore, in this study, the researchers aim to determine whether sub-chronic exposure to melamine via oral and systematic administration could induce behavioral abnormality in zebrafish...

BACKGROUND: Propofol can increase neurotoxicity in infants but the precise mechanism is still unknown. Our previous study revealed that nuclear FMR1 interacting protein 1 (NUFIP1), a specific ribophagy receptor, can alleviate T cell apoptosis in sepsis. Yet, the effect of NUFIP1-engineered exosomes elicited from human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells (hUMSCs) on nerve injury induced by propofol remains unclear. This study intended to investigate the effect of NUFIP1-engineered exosomes on propofol-induced nerve damage in neonatal rats...

Exposure to pesticides, such as carbamates, organophosphates, organochlorines and pyrethroids, has been linked to various health problems, including neurotoxicity. Although most in vivo studies use only male rodents, some studies have shown in vivo sex-specific effects after acute exposure. Since in vivo studies are costly and require a large number of animals, in vitro assays that take sex-specific effects into account are urgently needed. We therefore assessed the acute effects of exposure to different carbamates (methomyl, aldicarb and carbaryl), organophosphates (chlorpyrifos (CPF), chlorpyrifos-oxon (CPO) and 3,5,6-trichloropyridinol), organochlorines (endosulfan, dieldrin and lindane) and pyrethroids (permethrin, alpha-cypermethrin and 3-phenoxy-benzoic acid (3-PBA)) on neuronal network function in sex-separated rat primary cortical cultures using micro-electrode array (MEA) recordings...

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that poses risks to both human and environmental health, making it a pressing public health concern. This study aimed to summarize the knowledge on mercury toxicology and the biological impairments caused by exposure to mercury in experimental studies and/or diagnosis in humans. The research was conducted on the main collection of Web of Science, employing as a methodological tool a bibliometric analysis. The selected articles were analyzed, and extracted data such as publication year, journal, author, title, number of citations, corresponding author's country, keywords, and the knowledge mapping was performed about the type of study, chemical form of mercury, exposure period, origin of exposure, tissue/fluid of exposure measurement, mercury concentration, evaluation period (age), mercury effect, model experiments, dose, exposure pathway, and time of exposure...

BACKGROUND: Manganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient as well as a well-established neurotoxicant. Occupational and environmental exposures may bypass homeostatic regulation and lead to increased systemic Mn levels. Translocation of ultrafine ambient airborne particles via nasal neuronal pathway to olfactory bulb and tract may be an important pathway by which Mn enters the central nervous system. OBJECTIVE: To measure olfactory tract/bulb tissue metal concentrations in Mn-exposed and non-exposed mineworkers...

Fluorene-9-bisphenol (BHPF) is widely used in the manufacture of plastic products and potentially disrupts several physiological processes, but its biological effects on social behavior remain unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of BHPF exposure on anxiety-like and social behavior in female mice and the potential mechanisms, thereby proposing a potential therapy strategy. We exposed female Balb/c mice to BHPF by oral gavage at different doses (0.5, 50 mg/kg bw/2-day) for 28 days, which were found BHPF (50 mg/kg) exposure affected motor activity in the open field test (OFT) and elevated cross maze (EPM), resulting in anxiety-like behaviors, as well as abnormal social behavioral deficits in the Social Interaction Test (SIT)...

Bisphenol F (BPF) and Bisphenol S (BPS) are being widely used by the industry with the claim of "safer substances", even with the scarcity of toxicological studies. Given the etiological gap of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the environment may be a causal factor, so we investigated whether exposure to BPF and BPS during the developmental period can induce ASD-like modeling in adult flies. Drosophila melanogaster flies were exposed during development (embryonic and larval period) to concentrations of 0.25, 0...

Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) is not routinely evaluated in chemical risk assessment because current test paradigms for DNT require the use of mammalian models which are ethically controversial, expensive, and resource demanding. Consequently, efforts have focused on revolutionizing DNT testing through affordable novel alternative methods for risk assessment. The goal is to develop a DNT in vitro test battery amenable to high-throughput screening (HTS). Currently, the DNT in vitro test battery consists primarily of human cell-based assays because of their immediate relevance to human health...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Aspartame (APM) is one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners worldwide. Studies have revealed that consuming APM may negatively affect the body, causing oxidative stress damage to multiple organs and leading to various neurophysiological symptoms. However, it's still unclear if consuming APM and one's daily biological rhythm have an interactive effect on health. In this study, healthy adult C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into four groups: Control group (CON), oral gavage sham group (OGS), daytime APM intragastric group (DAI) and nighttime APM intragastric group (NAI)...