Avaliação comportamental frente a exposição crônica de baixas doses de Paraquat e associações em ratos Wistar machos

Abstract

The progressive increase in population and food production makes the use of agrochemicals essential. Brazil is known worldwide in the quantity of these products marketed, being highlighted since 2008. The classes most used are herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. It is known that these products pose a risk to human health and can affect multiple systems. In addition, some studies are demonstrating neurotoxic and behavioral effects caused by these agents, however, the mechanism of this effect remains uncertain. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate whether exposure to Paraquat, which is a herbicide, widely used because of its low cost and broad spectrum in isolation and as associations with Mancozeb, which is a fungicide and with Chlorpyrifos, which is an insecticide are capable of producing effects. For this, 48 male Wistar rats divided into 4 groups according to the exposure agent: Control/Water (N= 12), Paraquat 1mg/kg (N=12), Paraquat 1mg/kg and Mancozeb 3 mg/kg (N = 12), Paraquat 1 mg/kg and Chlorpyrifos 0.3 mg/kg (N = 12). The exposure occurred daily for 28 days orally (gavage). After the exposure period, sucrose preference tests, social recognition, open field, object recognition, elevated plus maze and forced swimming were performed. As a result, the animals submitted to the treatment had deficits in the social and declarative memory, evidenced by the test of social recognition and objects. In addition, they also presented anxiogenic and depressive signs, demonstrated by the elevated plus maze test and forced swimming. In addition to non-motor signals, the animals also presented motor impairment, evidenced by the open field test. As a conclusion, we demonstrated that exposure to Paraquat and associations with Mancozeb and Chlorpyrifos caused behavioral changes in animals submitted to Paraquat exposure and associated with Mancozeb and Chlorpyrifos.