Peer-reviewed article
Early-life exposure to organophosphorus pesticide mixtures and impaired neonatal neurodevelopment: A cohort study integrating comprehensive multi-omics and machine learning.
Ming Deng, Jun Qiu, Shiting Xiang, Xiongfeng Pan, Kunyan Zhao et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined 281 newborns to understand how exposure to organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) affects early brain development. Researchers found that higher pesticide exposure was linked to lower neurodevelopment scores and changes in gut bacteria, particularly increased harmful bacteria and decreased beneficial ones. A machine learning model that included information about gut bacteria showed modest improvement in predicting motor problems at age 5 compared to standard clinical measures alone.
Key points
- Fenamiphos and fenitrothion were identified as major OPP contributors to lower neurodevelopment scores
- Higher pesticide exposure was associated with altered gut microbiota, including increased opportunistic bacteria (Acinetobacter, Ralstonia) and decreased beneficial bacteria (Lactiplantibacillus)
- Altered microbial pathways related to secretion systems and tryptophan metabolism correlated with poorer neurodevelopment
- A random forest model incorporating microbial functional features showed modest improvement in predicting motor outcomes at age 5 compared to conventional clinical indicators alone
- Findings suggest early-life pesticide exposure affects neurodevelopment potentially through gut-brain axis dysfunction
Limitations
The study does not specify the country or geographic location where it was conducted, limiting assessment of generalisability. The mechanism linking pesticide exposure to neurodevelopmental impairment remains incompletely understood, and the modest predictive improvement from including microbial features suggests other important factors may be unmeasured.
Abstract
Early-life exposure to low-dose organophosphorus pesticide (OPP) mixtures and their impact on neonatal neurodevelopment remain insufficiently characterized. In this study, plasma samples from 281 newborns were analyzed for 21 OPPs, and neurodevelopment was assessed using the Neonatal Behavioral Neurological Assessment (NBNA). Mixture models consistently identified fenamiphos and fenitrothion as major contributors to lower NBNA scores. To explore potential underlying mechanisms, network toxicology and infant fecal 16S rRNA sequencing were employed. Higher OPP exposure risk scores were associated with altered gut microbiota, including increased abundance of opportunistic genera such as Acinetobacter and Ralstonia, and decreased levels of beneficial taxa including Lactiplantibacillus. Predicted functional profiling revealed enrichment of microbial pathways related to secretion systems and tryptophan metabolism, which correlated with poorer neurodevelopment. Furthermore, a random forest model integrating microbial functional features showed modestly improved prediction of motor outcomes at age 5, assessed via the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), compared with models based on conventional clinical indicators alone. These findings suggest that early-life exposure to OPP mixtures is linked to impaired neonatal neurodevelopment, potentially linked to gut microbiota dysregulation and predicted functional alterations. Importantly, microbial functional signatures may have potential as early-life predictive markers for later motor deficits, highlighting the critical interplay between environmental exposures and the gut-brain axis in shaping neurodevelopmental outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of reducing early-life pesticide exposure and support further research into microbiota-related pathways that may inform strategies to mitigate long-term neurodevelopmental risks.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Measurement and analysis of pesticide exposure biomarkers, gut microbiota composition and function, and neurodevelopmental outcomes using mixture models and machine learning to identify predictive relationships
- Population
- 281 newborns with follow-up neurodevelopmental assessment at age 5 via Ages and Stages Questionnaires
Key finding
Fenamiphos and fenitrothion identified as major OPP contributors to lower NBNA scores