US EPA

3865714 

Journal Article 

Pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in cerebrospinal fluid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients: a case-control study 

Vinceti, M; Violi, F; Tzatzarakis, M; Mandrioli, J; Malagoli, C; Hatch, EE; Fini, N; Fasano, A; Rakitskii, VN; Kalantzi, OI; Tsatsakis, A 

2017 

Yes 

Environmental Research
ISSN: 0013-9351
EISSN: 1096-0953 

Academic Press Inc. 

SAN DIEGO 

155 

261-267 

English 

28242563 

10.1016/j.envres.2017.02.025 

WOS:000398651000031 

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85013836945&doi=10.1016%2fj.envres.2017.02.025&partnerID=40&md5=e46b70f0adc20e44e6ad30009e27c652
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Neurotoxic chemicals including several pesticides have been suggested to play a role in the etiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We investigated the relation between organochlorine pesticides and their metabolites (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the etiology of sporadic ALS, determining for the first time their levels in cerebrospinal fluid as indicator of antecedent exposure. We recruited 38 ALS patients and 38 controls referred to an Italian clinical center for ALS care, who underwent a lumbar puncture for diagnostic purposes between 1994-2013, and had 1mL of cerebrospinal fluid available for the determination of OCPs, PCBs and PAHs. Many chemicals were undetectable in both case and control CSF samples, and we found little evidence of any increased disease risk according to higher levels of exposure. Among males >60 years, we found a slight but statistically very unstable increased ALS risk with higher levels of the congener PCB 28 and the OCP metabolite p,p'-DDE. Overall, these results do not suggest an involvement of the neurotoxic chemicals investigated in this study in disease etiology, although small numbers limited the precision of our results. 

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Case-control study; Environment; Persistent organic pollutants; Pesticides; Risk