parathion insecticide may be responsible for malignant transformation of breast cells

[Lani]

Mol Med. 2007 Jun 11; [Epub ahead of print]
Gene and Protein Expressions Induced by 17beta estradiol and Parathion in Cultured Breast Epithelial Cells.

Calaf GM, Roy D.
Institute for Advanced Research, Tarapaca University, Arica, Chile.
Cancer of the breast is the most common form of malignant disease occurring among women of the western world and environmental substances seem to be involved in the etiology of this disease. Many studies have found an association between human cancer and exposure to agricultural pesticides and among them parathion, the organophosphorous pesticides have been used in agriculture to control mosquito plagues. The association between breast cancer and prolonged exposure to estrogens suggests that this hormone may also have a role in such process. However, the causative factors for breast carcinogenesis remain an enigma. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of 17beta estradiol (E2) and parathion on cell transformation of human breast epithelial cells in vitro. The results of this study showed that parathion alone and in combination with E2 induced malignant transformation of an immortalized human breast epithelial cell line, MCF-10F and the malignant feature was confirmed by anchorage independency and invasive capabilities. Parathion alone efficiently elevated the expression of EGFR, c-Kit, Trio, Rac 3, Rho-A and mutant p53 proteins. Analysis of gene expression using commercially available human cell cycle array revealed transcriptional alterations in 22 out of a total of 96 genes. Among them, 9 genes involved in the regulation of cell cycle were altered. These included cyclins (A1, A2, C, G1, G2 and H), cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) and minichromosome maintenance deficient (MCM). Results suggest that parathion has the potency to cause malignant transformation of breast epithelial cells through modulation of expression of cell cycle regulated genes.
PMID: 17622325 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

[StephN]

Wonder what these commercial sprays were made from in the 50's and 60's???

And how young could a person be to have the effects of the parathion for cell mutations?? How long might it take for these mutations to show up as the cancer??

I ask these questions since my neighborhood was a hill (previouisly orchards) with a series of short deadend streets bordering on a canyon. The canyon had a pond and collected runnoff water. It was sprayed every summer for mosquito control. I remember that smell very well.

There were also irrigation ditches and canals that were sprayed.

There is a very high incidence of breast cancer in those of us who grew up there, as well as a few of the mothers. We always attributed this breast cancer dense neighborhood to the pesticides, but might be able to pin it down closer to the mosquito sprays.

[KellyA]

I also find this very interesting. We live in an area with a HUGE mosquito issue, and they are always spraying here. We live on a small island in Savannah, and in the last year, I know of 7 girls, all under the age of forty, who have been diagnosed with BC that live within 1 mile of me. It might just be me, but it seems like an awful lot......

[Margerie]

I grew up in Mississippi in the early 70's. I remember every summer, there were days we weren't allowed outside at night because of the mosquito spray trucks were hitting the neighborhoods. Hit puberty then too!

[Hopeful]

I remember the mosquito spray trucks coming down my street several times a summer, as a young girl (around age 9 - 12 or 13, at least; I hit puberty one month before I turned 11). Kids used to perversely run behind the trucks in the spray. Studies say early exposure to carcinogens leads to increased bc . . .

Hopeful

[Lani]

in the San Jose/Peninsula area in the mid/late 70s to early to mid 80s for an infestation that threatened fruit crops.

We were told to park our cars insides to avoid the paint on the cars being ruined by the spraying !!!!!

[Donna]

Interesting thread..........

I was in the Bay Area for training for a job during a spray of malathion which is the same sort of mosquito spray - and we weren't notified at the hotel to cover our cars - the spray did eat the paint on my car. It looked like huge rust spots all over it and my insurance company was one of the few that paid for a new paint job. It was so corrosive that it ate all the way down to the metal, it was awful. I was so amazed that people weren't more concerned about it - if it would do that to the paint on my car, good gawd, what would it do to human tissues and lungs?????

Now we know, huh?

I don't suppose one exposure would be enough, but who would know?

Donna

[Lani]

I guess the malathion got some of my brain cells!

[dberg]

Like Hopeful I spent many summer nights in the 60s chasing the mosquito trucks in Florida! All the kids in the neighborhood joined in. What were our parents thinking?

[Hopeful]

dberg,

I didn't run behind the trucks, though kids in my neighborhood did. I remember my mother shouting, "Close the windows!" at the first sign of the trucks, and the drill was we all ran around the house closing doors and windows (this was circa 1963, pre-air conditioning in my house). I do recall that noxious mist coming right through my bedroom window as I slammed it shut.

Hopeful

[suzan w]

when I was a kid in the Boston area, big planes would spray the neighborhood in the pre-dawn and we would run outside as the white dust fell like snow...good grief! When I was living in Florida a few years back I actually stopped the spray-truck one evening to ask him just what in the heck he was spraying! He told me it was an oil mix that settled onto standing water which made it impossible for mosquitos to lay eggs...of course I am sure that in the 50's and 60's (70's,80's,90's...) it was a much more toxic blend. I have always wondered about the FLOURIDE that is in everything...seems that I once read that flouride was some sort of by-product that needed disposing of and the government started a campaign that it was good for teeth and bones...hmmm

[Mary Anne in TX]

who chased the sprayers! How bad was that! I grew up in the greater Houston area and they sprayed all the time! ma

[Liz J.]

I recall sitting on my front stoop in Brooklyn N.Y. as a young girl and watching the trucks come up the block all the time during the summer months. They would spray a white substance that stuck to the trees like paint. There was a mist all around. We also had these cardboard boxes that had a yellow waxy looking object inside. They were hung from the ceiling in our bedrooms during the summer to kill mosquitoes. (sort of like the modern roach motel) but for mosquitoes. In my early teens (early '70's) I recall my parents saying they would never use them again as they were found to be harmful. My husband grew up in a huge housing complex in Queens, N.Y. He told me how they would spray the grounds constantly for bugs during the summer. Just about everyone he knew who lived there developed some sort of cancer. Himself included with bladder cancer at age 42. So ------------ looks like there is definetely a connection.

[Lani]

Int J Mol Med. 2008 Feb;21(2):261-268.
Cancer genes induced by malathion and parathion in the presence of estrogen in breast cells.

Calaf GM, Roy D.
Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá, Antofagasta #1520, Arica, Chile. gmc24@columbia.edu.
The identification of genes involved in the process of neoplastic transformation is essential for analyzing the progression of breast cancer when induced by endogenous and exogenous agents, among which are the estrogens and the organophosphorous pesticides, respectively. It is important to consider the impact of such substances when they are present in combination. In vitro experimental models are needed in order to understand breast carcinogenesis. The aim of this work was to examine the effect of 17beta estradiol (estrogen) combined with either malathion or parathion on the transformation of human breast epithelial cells in vitro. Results showed that estrogen combined with either malathion or parathion altered cell proliferation and induced cell transformation as well as exhibited significant invasive capabilities as compared to the control MCF-10F cell line. Several genes were up-regulated by the effect of all of the treatments, such as the cyclins, cyclin D1 and cyclin-dependent kinase 4, IGFBP3 and IGFBP5, and keratin 18. The c-Ha-ras oncogene was up-regulated by the effect of malathion alone and with the combination of estrogen and either malathion or parathion. The DVL1 gene was up-regulated only with malathion alone and the combination of parathion with estrogen. Expression of the HSP 27, MCM2 and TP53 inducible protein 3 genes was up-regulated with malathion alone and with the combination of estrogen and either malathion or parathion while TP53 (Li-Fraumeni syndrome) was up-regulated by estrogen alone and malathion alone. Thus, we suggest that pesticides and estrogens affect human breast cells inducing molecular changes indicative of transformation.
PMID: 18204794 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

[suzan w]

Thank you Lani for following through with this...it sure does make one wonder...

[Christine MH-UK]

Because there wasn't enough convincing safety data:

from http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/garden.asp?id=2160
"Amateur products withdrawn from the market during stage 2 of the EC Review - malathion

Malathion products will be withdrawn from the market because it was not possible to conclude that malathion met the safety criteria for inclusion in Annex 1 to Directive 91/414/EEC based on the information available."

My mother used malathion in the garden and I remember that she used to store the bag, opened, in the kitchen and even the smell of it. Does make me wonder.