Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) are widespread insecticides used for pest control in agricultural activities and the control of the vectors of human and animal diseases. However, OPs’ neurotoxic mechanism involves cholinergic components, which, beyond being involved in the transmission of neuronal signals, also influence the activity of cytokines and other pro-inflammatory molecules; thus, acute and chronic exposure to OPs may be related to the development of chronic degenerative pathologies and other inflammatory diseases. The present article reviews and discusses the experimental evidence linking inflammatory process with OP-induced cholinergic dysregulation, emphasizing the molecular mechanisms related to the role of cytokines and cellular alterations in humans and other animal models, and possible therapeutic targets to inhibit inflammation.

Organophosphate pesticides (OPs) have greatly facilitated food production worldwide, and their use is not limited to agriculture and the control of pests and disease vectors. However, these substances can directly affect the immune response of non-target organisms. In this sense, exposure to OPs can have negative effects on innate and adaptive immunity, promoting deregulation in humoral and cellular processes such as phagocytosis, cytokine expression, antibody production, cell proliferation, and differentiation, which are crucial mechanisms for host defense against external agents. This review focuses on the scientific evidence of exposure to OPs and their toxic effects on the immune system of non-target organisms (invertebrates and vertebrates) from a descriptive perspective of the immuno-toxic mechanisms associated with susceptibility to the development of bacterial, viral, and fungal infectious diseases. During the exhaustive review, we found that there is an important gap in the study of non-target organisms, examples of which are echinoderms and chondrichthyans. It is therefore important to increase the number of studies on other species directly or indirectly affected by Ops, to assess the degree of impact at the individual level and how this affects higher levels, such as populations and ecosystems.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the study of particles loaded with bioactive compounds as a proposed additive with potential nutraceutical effects. Therefore, our teamwork has designed and characterized different particles loaded with lupeol and mangiferin, which have shown different applications depending on the encapsulation material but maintaining their effect on topoisomerase and cyclooxygenase models. In this work, different loaded and unloaded encapsulation matrices were used to evaluate their toxicity in an ex vivo system of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and erythrocytes. As a result, ZnO synthesized by sol–gel shows a toxic effect for any cell [1 mg/mL]; however, those elaborated with polylactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) do not induce apoptosis after 72 h of exposure; on the other hand, the lupeol standard has statistically equal effects (p < 0.05) to those of etoposide in mononuclear cells. This study demostrates the biocompatibility of materials such as PLGA [1 mg/mL] for the encapsulation of phytochemicals, with potential application as a food additive.