Determination of the pyrethroid insecticide metabolite 3-PBA in plasma and urine samples from farmer and consumer groups in northern Thailand

Abstract

In this study, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) were modified to detect 3-PBA in plasma (including the adducted form) and urine among a large group of consumers and farmers in an agricultural area. The samples were collected on the same day in the morning from 100 consumers (50 females, 50 males) and 100 farmers (50 females, 50 males) in the Fang district, Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand. The ELISA was very sensitive having an IC₅₀ value of 26.7 and 15.3 ng/mL, a limit of quantitation of 5 and 2.5 ng/mL and a limit of detection of 1.08 and 1.94 ng/mL for plasma and urine, respectively. These methods had low (< 5%) intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation. The extraction technique satisfactorily eliminated the matrix effect from samples before ELISA analysis, yielding good recoveries (85.9–99.4% and 87.3–98.0%, respectively). For the volunteer study, the detection rate for plasma 3-PBA was 24% in consumers and 42% in farmers, but the median and range values were similar (median 5.87 ng/mL, range 5.16–8.44 ng/mL in consumers and 6.27 ng/mL, range 4.29–9.57 ng/mL in farmers). The rate of detection in the urine was similar (76% and 69%, in consumers and in farmers), yet the median concentration was significantly higher in farmers (8.86 μg/g creatinine in consumers vs 16.1 μg/g creatinine in farmers) and the range also much wider in farmers (1.62–80.5 μg/g creatinine in consumers and 0.80–256.2 μg/g creatinine in farmers). There was no correlation between plasma 3-PBA and urinary 3-PBA concentrations in the study presumably because plasma 3-PBA is a measure of cumulative exposures while urinary 3-PBA reflects acute exposures. In addition, metabolism and excretion of pyrethroids varies by individual. Nevertheless, this study demonstrated that these volunteers were exposed to pyrethroids. To our knowledge, this is the first report that compared plasma 3-PBA and urinary 3-PBA in a large group of volunteers. The ELISA method provided higher sample throughput with lower cost as compared to the instrumental analysis.

Keywords:

• Pyrethroid insecticide
• 3-PBA-adduct
• plasma 3-PBA
• urinary 3-PBA
• farmers
• consumers
• ELISA

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the Royal Golden Jubilee Ph.D. program, the Thailand Research Fund (PHD/0184/2547), by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF, Contract DBG5080018) and the Commissions for Higher Education (CHE) through the National Research University Program, Chiang Mai University, Ministry of Education, Thailand. Additional support was provided by the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Science P42ES04699 and the Center for Disease Control/National Institute of Occupational Health Science U50 OH07550. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Institute of Occupational Health Science or the National Institutes of Health. S.T. thanks the Research Institute for Health Sciences (RIHES), Chiang Mai University, for laboratory and field study support.