Organophosphates Induced Alzheimer’s Disease: An Epigenetic Aspect

Alzheimer’s disease is insidious progressive age related neurological disorder which leads to the loss of cognitive functions, memory processes and associated behavior. The role of environmental factor and genetic susceptibility in the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease has been reviewed in recent years. Organophosphates, a class of insecticide are widely used in the agriculture, home, garden, public health programs and therefore associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in exposed population. Frequent exposure of organophosphates to human populations especially in developing countries has generated insightful concerns among the health scientists about their neurotoxic consequences. The exposure is quite imminent as most of the people are unaware of its toxic insults and handle these chemicals without the safety measures. The exposure may also occur through the consumption of contaminated food products and environmental toxicity. Recent studies suggested that exposure to organophosphates has also been linked with the neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease. The involvement of various molecular and neurochemical signatures in its neurotoxicity are reported but the specific biomarkers, targeted mechanism of action and epidemiological link between the organophosphate exposure and pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease are not clearly understood. The present review has therefore been aimed to add new information to the literature which may help to find out protective and preventive strategies against their neurotoxicity and may establish a possible link of organophosphate exposure and Alzheimer’s disease.