Citation

Del Pino J, Moyano-Cires PV, Anadon MJ, Diaz MJ, Lobo M, Capo MA, Frejo MT. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2015; 28(6): 1073-1094.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Chemical Society)

DOI

10.1021/tx500534x

PMID

25973576

Abstract

Amitraz is a formamidine pesticide widely used as an insecticide and acaricide. Amitraz poisoning cases in humans and animals are still being described up to date, which is a cause of concer for health authorities. Amitraz was reported not to pose unreasonable risks or adverse effects to humans or the environment as the other commercialized member of the formamidine family, chlordimeform, which was removed from the market because of carcinogenic effects in animal studies. Amitraz was classified as a non-quantifiable 'Suggestive Evidence of Carcinogenicity' and not genotoxic, but recently it has been reported that it could induce genotoxic effects. Moreover, since the previous published evaluations made by EPA and JMPR there have been new reported data on amitraz toxicity related to genotoxicity, oxidative stress, cell death, immunotoxicty, endocrine disruption and developmental toxicity which indicate that the risk of this compound could be underestimated. Furthermore, there is missing information about the dose-response relationship for some mechanisms and toxic effects described for amitraz and its metabolites, the mechanism of action by which several toxic effects are produced, and the amitraz pharmacokinetic on different species. According to this, the new information reported should be taken into account and more studies should be performed to fill gaps of missing information for a complete hazard identification and therefore an exhaustive risk assessment of amitraz. This review is aimed at updating the current knowledge on molecular mechanisms of amitraz mammalian toxicity, pointing out the missing information, providing some possible explanation of the mechanism by which some toxic effects observed are produced, and a future direction on its research. To our knowledge this is the first review on molecular mechanisms of amitraz toxicity.

Language: en