Integrative Review Verification of the Influence of Atrazine Exposure on Behavioral, Neurochemical and Parkinsons Disease Disorders

Abstract

Herbicides represent the largest portion of pesticides used both worldwide and in Brazil. Many of these compounds are applied on a large scale in native forests and in urban and industrial water environments, including atrazine. Due to its low cost, ability to remain active in the soil for long periods and potential effect on weed removal, atrazine ranks 5th in the ranking of most used pesticide in Brazil. Although the use of pesticides increases agricultural production, their intensive use can often cause negative effects on fauna and flora. Studies have shown that exposure to atrazine can cause various harmful effects in mammals, of both sexes, such as structural, neuroendocrine and/or behavioral changes. Considering the seriousness of the situation and the possible toxicological and pathological implications that atrazine can generate in the animal organism, the objective of this work was to carry out an integrative literature review in order to verify the scientific panorama on issues related to atrazine exposure and its impacts, mainly with regard to its toxicity on the central nervous system. To carry out this article, a bibliographic survey of scientific material obtained in the following databases was carried out: US National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health (PubMed), Virtual Health Library (Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences - LILACS), Science Direct and Google® Academic, in the last 25 years. The MeSH Terms used in the search were: “Parkinson's disease”, “atrazine”, “herbicide” and “endocrine disruptor”. The following were found in the Science Direct indexers: 115 records, PubMed 52 records, in LILACS no articles were found, and 1330 records were found in Google® Academic.