Effects of Pesticides on the Human Microbiome and Organ Function.

Plant protection products (PPPs) are potentially harmful for environmental, plant, animal and human health. While many products are tested for acute toxicity, the effects of long-term exposure are not well known. As part of the larger SPRINT project, the project proposed here will focus on the effects of exposure to PPPs on the human microbiome and human organ function. For the microbiome analysis, faecal samples and nasal swabs were collected from approximately 700 subjects. The participants were either organic or traditional farmers, neighbours of farmers, or consumers who did or did not express a preference for organically farmed food. Using metagenomic sequencing, a functional and compositional microbiome profile is created. Integrating this data with data on PPP use provided by the farmers and data on PPP residues found in the blood, urine and faeces of the subjects will provide insight into the effects of long-term PPP exposure on the gut and nasal microbiome. The effect of PPPs on human organ function will be assessed by exposing human-derived intestinal and airway organoids to selected PPPs in vitro. The organoids are assessed for gene expression, protein expression, viability, cell growth, monolayer permeability, and cell lineage differentiation. Differential gene expression and subsequent pathway analysis tools will be used to identify which biological processes are impacted after exposure to the selected PPPs.