The Effects of Commercial Pesticide Formulations on the Function of In Vitro and In Vivo Assay Systems: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Pesticides are commonly used in agriculture and are an important factor of food security for humankind. However, the overuse of pesticides can harm non-target organisms, and, thus, it is vital to comprehensively study their effects on the different metabolic pathways of living organisms. In the present study, enzyme-inhibition-based assays have been used to investigate the effects of commercial pesticide formulations on the key enzymes of the organisms, which catalyze a wide variety of metabolic reactions (protein catabolism, lactic acid fermentation, alcohol metabolism, the conduction of nerve impulses, etc.). Assay conditions have been optimized, and the limitations of the methods used in the study, which are related to the choice of the solvent for commercial pesticide formulations and optical effects occurring when commercial pesticide formulations are mixed with solutions of enzymes and substrates of assay systems, have been revealed. The effects of commercial pesticide formulations on simple chemoenzymatic assay systems (single-enzyme reactions) have been compared to their effects on complex multicomponent molecular systems (multi-enzyme reactions) and organisms (luminescent bacterium). The in vitro assay systems have shown higher sensitivity to pesticide exposure than the in vivo assay system. The sensitivity of the in vitro assay systems increases with the elongation of the chain of conjugated chemoenzymatic reactions. The effects exerted by commercial pesticide formulations with the same active ingredient but produced by different manufacturers on assay system functions have been found to differ from each other.