Well-Water Consumption and Parkinson’s Disease in Rural California

IntroductionInvestigators have hypothesized that consuming pesticide-contaminated well water plays a role in Parkinson's disease (PD), and several previous epidemiologic studies support this hypothesis.ObjectivesWe investigated whether consuming water from private wells located in areas with documented historical pesticide use was associated with an increased risk of PD.MethodsWe employed a geographic information system (GIS)-based model to estimate potential well-water contamination from agricultural pesticides among 368 cases and 341 population controls enrolled in the Parkinson's Environment and Genes Study (PEG). We separately examined 6 pesticides (diazinon, chlorpyrifos, propargite, paraquat, dimethoate, and methomyl) from among 26 chemicals selected for their potential to pollute groundwater or for their interest in PD, and because at least 10% of our population was exposed to them.ResultsCases were more likely to have consumed private well water and to have consumed it on average 4.3 years longer than controls (p = 0.02). High levels of possible well-water contamination with methomyl [odds ratio (OR) = 1.67; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.00-2.78]), chlorpyrifos (OR = 1.87; 95% CI, 1.05-3.31), and propargite (OR = 1.92; 95% CI, 1.15-3.20) resulted in approximately 70-90% increases in relative risk of PD. Adjusting for ambient pesticide exposures only slightly attenuated these increases. Exposure to a higher number of water-soluble pesticides and organophosphate pesticides also increased the relative risk of PD.ConclusionOur study, the first to use agricultural pesticide application records, adds evidence that consuming well water presumably contaminated with pesticides may play a role in the etiology of PD

Selenium in serum and neoplastic tissue in breast cancer: correlation with CEA

Trace element selenium (Se) is regarded to be a breast cancer preventive factor involved in multiple protective pathways. In all, 80 women with breast cancer who underwent a radical mastectomy were enrolled in the study. Serum Se and carcinoembryonic antigen levels were measured using a fluorometric and IRMA assay, respectively. Se tissue concentration was determined by a tissue extracting fluorometric assay. For statistical analysis purposes t-test was used and P-values <0.001 were regarded as statistically significant. Serum Se was 42.5±7.5 μg l−1 in breast cancer patients and 67.6±5.36 μg l−1 in the age-matched control group of healthy individuals. Serum carcinoembryonic antigen in patients was 10±1.7 U ml−1 (normal <2.5 U ml−1 in nonsmokers/<3.5 U ml−1 in smokers). A statistically significant difference was found for both serum Se and CEA between two groups studied (P<0.001). Neoplastic tissue Se concentration was 2660±210 mg g−1 tissue; its concentration in the adjacent non-neoplastic tissue was 680±110 mg g−1 tissue (P<0.001). An inverse relationship between Se and CEA serum levels was found in the two groups studied (r=−0.794). There was no correlation between serum/tissue Se concentration and stage of the disease. The decrease in serum Se concentration as well as its increased concentration in the neoplastic breast tissue is of great significance. These alterations may reflect part of the defence mechanisms against the carcinogenetic process

Efecto de la suplementación oral con cobre en el perfil lipídico de pacientes venezolanos hiperlipémicos

Se considera que la mayoría de las dietas occidentales satisfacen los requerimientos diarios de cobre debido a su presencia ubicua en los alimentos. Estudios recientes han demostrado que el cobre alimentario se encuentra a menudo por debajo de sus requerimientos diarios, lo que puede determinar una carencia de este elemento. Esta carencia está asociada con hipercolesterolemia e hipertrigliceridemia, tanto en humanos como en animales experimentales. En el presente estudio de intervención se examinó el efecto de la administración de 5 mg de Cu/día, en 73 pacientes (grupo tratado), de ambos géneros, con edades entre 26 y 48 años, con niveles séricos elevados de colesterol total y de triglicéridos sin tratamiento con drogas hipolipémicas y se comparó con 73 pacientes hiperlipémicos no sometidos a tratamiento con Cu (grupo control), quienes fueron agrupados por género, edad, peso corporal, consumo de cigarrillos, ingesta de calorías y grasas y actividad física. Antes de administrar el cobre, se extrajo una muestra de sangre para las determinaciones de cobre, cinc y lípidos séricos. Al final del periodo experimental (45 días), se obtuvo una nueva muestra de sangre para las determinaciones correspondientes. Los resultados sugieren la existencia de una carencia marginal del elemento traza en el 38% de los sujetos y demuestran que el cobre disminuye significativamente (p<0.05) los niveles séricos de colesterol total (r= -0.976), de triglicéridos (r= -0.972), de LDL-colesterol (r= -0.961) y de cinc (r= -0.980) con un ligero incremento (r= 0.894) del HDL-colesterol. Estos hallazgos demuestran que el cobre se puede emplear en el tratamiento de los pacientes con hipercolesterolemia e hipertrigliceridemia; aunque los mecanismos, que explican como el cobre determina estos cambios, no se conocen exactamente

Molecular regionalization of the developing amphioxus neural tube challenges major partitions of the vertebrate brain.

All vertebrate brains develop following a common Bauplan defined by anteroposterior (AP) and dorsoventral (DV) subdivisions, characterized by largely conserved differential expression of gene markers. However, it is still unclear how this Bauplan originated during evolution. We studied the relative expression of 48 genes with key roles in vertebrate neural patterning in a representative amphioxus embryonic stage. Unlike nonchordates, amphioxus develops its central nervous system (CNS) from a neural plate that is homologous to that of vertebrates, allowing direct topological comparisons. The resulting genoarchitectonic model revealed that the amphioxus incipient neural tube is unexpectedly complex, consisting of several AP and DV molecular partitions. Strikingly, comparison with vertebrates indicates that the vertebrate thalamus, pretectum, and midbrain domains jointly correspond to a single amphioxus region, which we termed Di-Mesencephalic primordium (DiMes). This suggests that these domains have a common developmental and evolutionary origin, as supported by functional experiments manipulating secondary organizers in zebrafish and mice