THE ROLE OF PESTICIDES PARAQUAT AND ROTENONE IN THE ACTIVATION OF NEURODEGENERATIVE PROCESSS INTRODUCTION

Pesticides paraquat and rotenone have been suggested to provoke oxidative stress to the neuronal tissues in human brain. We have investigated the higher production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the markers of oxidative stress after the treatment with the paraquat (1mM) and rotenone (20 μM) pesticides using the method of optical imaging. Another index of the imbalance between the production of ROS and the ability to detoxication of the reactive intermediates is the lipid peroxidation end product, malondialdehyde (MDA). Paraquat and rotenone have increased the MDA level in dosedependent manner after 24 hours of incubation. These results suggest that the application of pesticides on the human neuroblastoma SHSY5Y cell culture leads to the activation of oxidative stress process and cell death which are the key mechanisms of the most common neurodegenerative diseases.