Metabolomic Changes in Rat Serum after Chronic Exposure to Glyphosate-Based Herbicide

Abstract

Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) have gained extensive popularity in recent decades. For many years, glyphosate has been regarded as harmless or minimally toxic to mammals due to the absence of its primary target, the shikimic acid pathway in humans. Nonetheless, mounting evidence suggests that glyphosate may cause adverse health effects in humans via other mechanisms. In this study, we described the metabolomic changes in the serum of experimental rats exposed to chronic GBH using the highly sensitive LC-MS/MS technique. We investigated the possible relationship between chronic exposure to GBH and neurological disorders. Our findings suggest that chronic exposure to GBH can alter spatial learning memory and the expression of some important metabolites that are linked to neurophysiological disorders in young rats, with the female rats showing higher susceptibility compared to the males. This indicates that female rats are more likely to show early symptoms of the disorder on exposure to chronic GBH compared to male rats. We observed that four important metabolites (paraxanthine, epinephrine, L-(+)-arginine, and D-arginine) showed significant changes and involvement in neurological changes as suggested by ingenuity pathway analysis. In conclusion, our results indicate that chronic exposure to GBH can increase the risk of developing neurological disorders.

Aminomethylphosphonic Acid (AMPA), a Glyphosate Metabolite, Decreases Plasma Cholinesterase Activity in Rats

“…It has recently been reported that GBH exerts metabolomic changes in rat serum for four important metabolites (i.e., paraxanthine, epinephrine, L-(+)-arginine, and D-arginine); these metabolites could be involved in neurological changes as proposed by an ingenuity pathway analysis [ 22 ]. It remains to be determined if some of those metabolomic alterations may explain the discrete alterations in cognition and behaviour induced by GBH exposition [ 7 ].…”