Brazilian workers occupationally exposed to different toxic agents: A systematic review on DNA damage.

The evaluation of genotoxicity in workers exposed to different toxic agents is very important, especially considering the association between these exposures in a chronic context and DNA damage. Assessing biomarkers of exposure and, when possible, early biomarkers of effect, contributes to elucidating the potential toxic mechanisms involved in genotoxicity and its contribution to chronic non-communicable diseases. In Brazil, the biggest country in South America, workers are exposed to hazardous physical and chemical agents. Considering that these exposures occur, in most cases, throughout the worker's whole life, this is an important public health concern in Brazil. Therefore, this systematic review aims to analyze occupational exposure to chemical and physical agents and the association with DNA damage in studies carried out in Brazil from 1980 to 2021. A systematic and comprehensive literature search was performed in different databases based on occupational exposure to chemical and physical agents and DNA damage. Only full articles on studies that investigated experimental evidence on occupational exposure in Brazil and assessed DNA damage were included, amounting to 89 articles. Five main occupational exposure groups were identified: pesticides (36%), organic solvents (20%), dust and particles (16%), metals (11%), and ionizing radiation (6%). Another group called "others" included studies (11%) that did not fall into these main groups. It was found that comet assay and micronucleus tests are the most adopted methods to detect DNA damage. Occupational exposures were most associated with DNA damage. However, further improvements in study design would be needed to better characterize the association between biomonitoring and DNA damage, particularly to account for confounding factors.

Anthropogenic Effects on Natural Mammalian Populations: Correlation Between Telomere Length and Coal Exposure.

The Candiota coal mine in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) is one of the largest in Brazil. Coal is a fossil fuel that causes environmental impacts from its extraction to combustion due to the release of different agents, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heavy metals. Ctenomys torquatus are herbivorous and subterranean rodents that dig tunnels with their paws and teeth and can be exposed to coal through contaminated food. Exposure to pollutants can cause DNA damage and affect different tissues, inducing alterations in the population structure and genetic diversity. Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of exposure to coal and its derivatives on the C. torquatus population and to examine the relationship of coal exposure with variations in absolute telomere length (aTL), global DNA methylation and genotoxicity. Our study showed an inverse correlation between telomere length and coal exposure in addition to an increase in DNA damage. The results indicate that coal and its byproducts can contribute to the alteration of the C. torquatus population structure, as evidenced by a reduction in the number of adults.

Determination of the main impurities formed after acid hydrolysis of soybean extracts and the in vitro mutagenicity and genotoxicity studies of 5-ethoxymethyl-2-furfural.

Soybean acid hydrolyzed extracts are raw-materials widely used for manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics products due to their high content of isoflavone aglycones. In the present study, the main sugar degradation products 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) and 5-ethoxymethyl-2-furfural (EMF) were quantitatively determined after acid hydrolysis of extracts from different soybean cultivars by a validated liquid chromatography method. The furanic compounds determined in samples cover the range of 0.16-0.21mg/mL and 0.22-0.33mg/mL for HMF and EMF, respectively. Complementarily, due to the scarce literature regarding the EMF toxicology, this study also assessed the EMF mutagenicity by the Salmonella/microsome test and genotoxicity by the comet assay. The results revealed that EMF did not show mutagenicity at the range of 50-5000µg/plate in S. typhimurium strains TA98, TA97a, TA100, TA102 and TA1535, but induced DNA damage in HepG2 cells at non-cytotoxic doses of 0.1-1.3mg/mL, mainly by oxidative stress mechanisms. Based on literature of HMF genotoxicity, and considering the EMF genotoxicity results herein shown, purification procedures to remove these impurities from extracts are recommended during healthcare products development to ensure the security of the products.