Tag Archives: beate ritz

Researchers ID more pesticides linked to Parkinson’s, gene that increases risk

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Studies have shown that certain pesticides can increase people’s risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Now, UCLA researchers have found that the strength of that risk depends on an individual’s genetic makeup, which, in the most pesticide-exposed populations, could increase a person’s chance of developing the debilitating disease two- to six-fold.  

In an earlier study, published January 2013 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the UCLA team discovered a link between Parkinson’s and the pesticide benomyl, a fungicide that has been banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. That study found that benomyl prevents the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) from converting aldehydes — organic compounds that are highly toxic to dopamine cells in the brain — into less toxic agents, thereby contributing to the risk of Parkinson’s.  (more…)

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Across the Border: Children of U.S.-born Latinas More Likely to Get Retina Cancer, Study Finds

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In a large epidemiologic study, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center found that babies of U.S.-born Latinas are at higher risk for retinoblastoma — a malignant tumor of the retina which typically occurs before the age of 6 — than children of Mexico-born mothers.

The study, which focused on infants born in California, also found that children of older fathers and those born to women with sexually transmitted diseases were at greater risk for the disease, as were children from multiple-birth pregnancies, which may indicate an increased risk from in vitro fertilization. Those findings confirmed the results of several smaller studies. (more…)

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