Common pesticide damages brain cell recycling system and increases Parkinson's risk
PsyPost••health
Key Points:
- New research from UCLA links the agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos to an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, showing it disrupts the brain’s cellular cleaning system and leads to toxic protein buildup.
- Epidemiological analysis of over 1,600 individuals in California’s Central Valley found that high cumulative exposure to chlorpyrifos increased Parkinson’s risk by more than 2.5 times, especially with exposures 10-20 years before diagnosis.
- Laboratory studies exposing mice to chlorpyrifos vapor revealed motor deficits and a 26% loss of dopamine-producing neurons, alongside protein aggregates and neuroinflammation characteristic of Parkinson’s pathology.
- Zebrafish experiments demonstrated that chlorpyrifos impairs autophagy
