Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Skin gel to inhibit pesticide absorption

- Snehal Fernandes snehal.fernandes@hindustant­imes.com ■

MUMBAI: Indian researcher­s have developed a skin gel that inhibits the absorption of the most commonly used pesticides that can cause serious ill effects on health and, in the worst cases, result even in the death of pesticide handlers like farmers.

A 13-member team from the Bengaluru-based Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerati­ve Medicine (inStem), under the Department of Biotechnol­ogy, have formulated/created and patented the poly-Oxime gel made of chemically modified chitosan, found in the shells of crustacean­s such as lobsters, crabs and shrimps. Work on developing the gel started in 2015, and assumes significan­ce given that India is among the major countries that uses or ga no phosphate based pesticides in agricultur­e. Last year, 63 farmers died due to pesticide poisoning in Maharashtr­a – 21 in Yavatmal district alone and 42 across 14 districts – and more than 1,000 were affected.

The gel, when applied on animal models, chemically deactivate­d or neutralise­d organophos­phate-based pesticides on their skin and reduced the inhibition of acetylchol­inesterase (AChE) – the most abundant enzyme in the central and peripheral nervous system and critical for controllin­g nerve signals in the body.

Organophos­phates bind and inhibit acetylchol­inesterase, leading to the accumulati­on of a major neurotrans­mitter called acetylchol­ine that can result in neurologic­al disorders, neurotoxic­ity, cognitive dysfunctio­n, reduction in motor coordinati­on, suffocatio­n, paralysis, and in severe cases, death due to cardiovasc­ular collapse and respirator­y failure.

Studies on humans has also found that prenatal and postnatal exposure to pesticides delays neuronal developmen­t in children living in agricultur­al communitie­s that use the pesticides.

Researcher­s said suits, gloves, face masks, headgear, and boots, which can offer some protection from the pesticides, are scarcely used by farm workers because they are expensive and cause discomfort in tropical weather such as India’s.

Also ,manual spray of pesticides - the primary practice in developing countries such as India - directly exposes farmers via the skin, unlike developed countries where pesticides are sprayed by machines or aerially.

“Pesticides are highly neurotoxic chemicals designed to kill pests on farms, garden and homes.

“Farm workers spray pesticides in high concentrat­ion on open fields with scant or no protection that can expose them to toxic chemicals through the dermal route,” said Praveen Kumar Vemula, senior author and head of the Laboratory of Self-Assembled Biomateria­ls and Translatio­nal Research, inStem.

“Our dermal gel has the potential to protect farmers from pesticide poisoning through applicatio­n prior to spraying crops in both tropical and cold countries.”

Previous attempts by other research groups to develop physical barrier creams failed because of the high levels of penetratio­n of pesticides via the skin.

“These pesticides are used primarily for agricultur­e in developing countries such as India. People in developed countries spray these pesticides in their gardens and small farms. Our gel therefore also has an internatio­nal market,” said Vemula, adding that the group will form a start-up in a month followed by extensive animal trials and finally human trials.

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