This site needs JavaScript to work properly. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features!
Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Advanced
User Guide

Save citation to file

Add to Collections

Name must be less than 100 characters
Unable to load your collection due to an error
Please try again

Add to My Bibliography

Unable to load your delegates due to an error
Please try again

Your saved search

Test search terms
Would you like email updates of new search results?
Saved Search Alert Radio Buttons
()

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

. 2025 Jul 1:376:126404.
doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126404. Epub 2025 May 10.

Biomarkers reflecting the toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides to the central nervous system

Yeru Yang  1 , Xiaoyang Jiao  2 , Fen Yao  3 , Ze Lin  2 , Xiaolin Guo  2 , Meimei Wang  2 , Qingdong Xie  2 , Wenhua Liu  4 , Adela Jing Li  5 , Zhen Wang  6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 2 Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 3 Department of Pharmacology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 4 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China.
  • 5 College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China. Electronic address: jing.li@scau.edu.cn.
  • 6 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China. Electronic address: zhenwang@stu.edu.cn.

Biomarkers reflecting the toxicity of neonicotinoid insecticides to the central nervous system

Yeru Yang et al. Environ Pollut. .
. 2025 Jul 1:376:126404.
doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126404. Epub 2025 May 10.

Authors

Yeru Yang  1 , Xiaoyang Jiao  2 , Fen Yao  3 , Ze Lin  2 , Xiaolin Guo  2 , Meimei Wang  2 , Qingdong Xie  2 , Wenhua Liu  4 , Adela Jing Li  5 , Zhen Wang  6

Affiliations

  • 1 First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 2 Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 3 Department of Pharmacology, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, 515041, China.
  • 4 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China.
  • 5 College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China. Electronic address: jing.li@scau.edu.cn.
  • 6 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Disaster Prediction and Prevention, Shantou University, Shantou, 515063, China. Electronic address: zhenwang@stu.edu.cn.

Abstract

The widespread use of neurotoxic neonicotinoid pesticides (NEOs) has raised public health concerns. Although studies have revealed that NEOs exist in humans, the lack of suitable biomarkers has prevented us from systematically evaluating the harm of NEOs to human physiological functions. This study assessed the levels of NEOs and their metabolites (m-NEOs) in pairwise serum and urine samples from 144 patients with neurologic disorders and 30 healthy individuals. Correlations between biomarkers reflecting exposure and organ functions were analyzed. Our results revealed that the concentrations of urinary olefin-imidacloprid (Of-IMI) and thiamethoxam (THX) were 52.4 and 19.0 times higher than those in serum in the 15 types of NEOs and their m-NEOs. Notably, N-desmethyl acetamiprid (N-dm-ACE) dominated the levels of NEOs and m-NEOs in urine and serum, with the highest median concentrations being 2.58 ng/mL and 0.183 ng/mL, respectively. The composition profiles of the urinary NEOs and m-NEOs were dependent on sex, age, and disease type. Some biomarkers, i.e., inflammatory parameters, serum albumin (ALB), and cholinesterase (CHE), are closely correlated with the levels of NEOs and m-NEOs. Mediation analysis revealed that these biomarkers significantly mediated the relationships between the degree of exposure of NEOs and neurological impairments. Therefore, biomarkers reflecting the toxicity of NEOs and m-NEOs are urgently needed to evaluate the impairments of individuals with long-term exposure.

Keywords: Biomarker; Mediation effect; Neonicotinoid insecticides; Neurologic disorder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources

Full text links
Elsevier Science full text link Elsevier Science
Cite
Morty Proxy This is a proxified and sanitized view of the page, visit original site.