Polymorphisms in and genes as biomarkers of susceptibility for pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers.

Background: Occupational pesticides exposure has raised health concerns due to genotoxicity and accumulation of DNA damage. Polymorphisms in genes encoding enzymes involved in nucleotide excision repair (NER) may affect the individual's susceptibility to pesticide toxicity.

Methods: This study evaluates the association of excision repair cross complementation group 1 ( (8092 C > A, 3'UTR, rs3212986) and (19007 C > T, Asn118Asn, rs11615) (1244 G > A, Arg415Gln, rs1800067) and (3507 G > C, Asp1104His, rs17655) polymorphisms with pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers. The study population comprised 225 agricultural workers exposed to pesticides and 225 non-exposed controls.

Results: Our study demonstrate that exposed workers carrying variant 8092AA genotype showed higher total comet DNA migration ( = 0.015) as well as increased frequency of cells showing DNA migration ( = 0.027). Exposed agricultural workers with variant 1244AA (415Gln/Gln) and 3507CC (1104His/His) genotypes exhibited elevation in total comet DNA migration ( < 0.01). However, genotypes of 19007 C > T (Asn118Asn) showed no association with total comet DNA migration ( = 0.963), frequency of cells showing DNA migration ( = 0.423) as well as mean tail length ( = 0.432).

Conclusion: and polymorphisms influence DNA damage and can be used as biomarkers of susceptibility for pesticide-induced DNA damage in North-West Indian agricultural workers.