Pyrethroid exposure biomarker 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) binds to transthyretin and is positively associated with free T3 in pregnant women.

Pyrethroids constitute a large group of insecticides widely used in agriculture, indoor environments, and in vector control. Structurally, pyrethroids resemble thyroid hormones, and have been suggested to be thyroid hormone disruptors based on experimental studies. During pregnancy, even minor disturbances in maternal levels can affect fetal brain development.

Antagonistic nanobodies implicate mechanism of GSDMD pore formation and potential therapeutic application.

Inflammasome activation results in the cleavage of gasdermin D (GSDMD) by pro-inflammatory caspases. The N-terminal domains (GSDMD) oligomerize and assemble pores penetrating the target membrane. As methods to study pore formation in living cells are insufficient, the order of conformational changes, oligomerization, and membrane insertion remained unclear.

Prenatal exposure to pyrethroids and chlorpyrifos and IQ in 7-year-old children from the Odense Child Cohort.

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.

P38 kinases mediate NLRP1 inflammasome activation after ribotoxic stress response and virus infection.

Inflammasomes integrate cytosolic evidence of infection or damage to mount inflammatory responses. The inflammasome sensor NLRP1 is expressed in human keratinocytes and coordinates inflammation in the skin. We found that diverse stress signals induce human NLRP1 inflammasome assembly by activating MAP kinase p38: While the ribotoxic stress response to UV and microbial molecules exclusively activates p38 through MAP3K ZAKα, infection with arthropod-borne alphaviruses, including Semliki Forest and Chikungunya virus, activates p38 through ZAKα and potentially other MAP3K.

Effect of perfluoroalkyl exposure in pregnancy and infancy on intrauterine and childhood growth and anthropometry. Sub study from COPSAC2010 birth cohort.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl substances PFOS and PFOA are persistent and bioaccumulative exogenous chemicals in the human body with a range of suspected negative health effects. It is hypothesised that exposure during prenatal and early postnatal life might have particularly detrimental effects on intrauterine and childhood growth. In a Danish longitudinal mother-child cohort we investigate effect of PFOS and PFOA in pregnancy and infancy on intrauterine and childhood growth and anthropometry.