In this nested case-control study, we evaluated the interaction between pesticide use and SNPs in genes related to lipid metabolism. We found 17 interactions that were robust to multiple comparison adjustment and displayed a significant monotonic increase in prostate cancer risk with increasing pesticide use in one genotype group and no significant association in the other genotype group. With these criteria, our analyses yielded seven pesticides (atrazine, carbofuran, EPTC, fonofos, glyphosate, petroleum oil/distillate, and terbufos) and 15 SNPs in 11 genes (ABCG8, ACSL5, ADIPOR1, ALOX5, ALOX5AP, ALOX15, ALOXE3, A4GALT, LDLR, LRP1, SEC14L2) of primary interest.
Increased prostate cancer risk has been associated with the insecticides (terbufos, fonofos, carbofuran) that we found to interact with lipid metabolism genes in previous studies in the AHS. Terbufos was suggestively linked to prostate cancer [
32], but significantly with aggressive prostate cancer [
4], and showed evidence of interaction with variants in the 8q24 region [
9] and xenobiotic metabolism genes [
10]. Fonofos has been linked to prostate cancer [
3,
6] and aggressive prostate cancer [
4], and interacted significantly with variants in the 8q24 region, and the nucleotide and base excision repair genes [
11,
12]. Similarly, carbofuran has been linked to prostate cancer [
3], and interacted with variants in the nucleotide excision repair pathway [
12]. In contrast to the insecticides, none of the four herbicides we identified have been associated with prostate cancer risk in main effect studies in the AHS (petroleum oil [
3,
4], EPTC [
3,
4,
33], atrazine [
34,
35], glyphosate [
36]). However, in previous analyses in the prostate nested case-control study, petroleum oil interacted with xenobiotic metabolism genes [
10].
Our findings support the hypothesis that genetic variation in lipid metabolism genes might modify the associations between pesticides and prostate cancer; however, the biologic mechanisms are unclear. Organochlorines are lipophilic and accumulate in animal and human adipose tissue [
37,
38]; however, none of the six organochlorines we evaluated interacted significantly with the SNPs we examined. This may be due to organochlorines being of the market for approximately 30 years and having a very small number of participants who were exposed to these pesticides. Some pesticides in other classes have lipophilic properties or are metabolized via lipid-related mechanisms [
37,
38]. For example, organosphosphates have been shown to inhibit triglycerides and lipoprotein lipases in laboratory mice [
22,
39,
40]. Two (terbufos and fonofos) of the nine organophophates we examined interacted significantly with lipid metabolism gene variants and were associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. Terbufos interacted with a variant in
ALOXE3 (arachidonate lipoxygenase 3), which is involved in a lipoxygenase reaction of a fatty acid that is converted to a molecule involved in the proliferation and specialization of the lipid membrane of the epidermis [
41]. Terbufos also interacted with
ADIPOR1 (adiponectin receptor 1) that encodes the adiponectin receptor and mediates ligand activities, fatty acid oxidation, and glucose uptake by adiponectin [
42]; and
SEC14L2 (SEC14-like protein 2) that is involved in lipid-binding and cholesterol biosynthesis [
43]. Fonofos interacted with a variant in
ABCG8 (ATP-binding cassette, sub-family G member 8), which encodes a protein that is a member of the ATP-binding cassette transporters that promotes biliary excretion of sterols [
44]. Carbofuran belongs to another class of insecticide, carbamates, that inhibits cholinesterase and has been shown to generate reactive oxygen species and induce lipid peroxidation [
45]. Carbofuran interacted with
A4GALT (alpha 1,4-galactosyltransferase) which is involved in the formation of a glycolipid that provides cellular energy [
46].
Among the herbicides, EPTC, classified as a thiocarbamate, has been reported to disrupt the biosynthesis of lipid metabolism in plants [
47]. EPTC interacted with ALOX15, another gene in the lipoxygenase family that is involved in the metabolism of arachidonic and linoleic acid. Petroleum oil, which contains a mixture of hydrocarbons and is also lipophilic, is unique in that it is used as a herbicide, but also as an additive to other pesticides, and so it may have a wide variability in use [
48]. It interacted with variants in three genes: ALOX5 (arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase), which transforms essential fatty acids into leukotrienes [
49]; LRP1 (low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein 1), which regulates a large endocytic receptor that functions in lipoprotein transport [
50]; ACSL5 (acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain 5) which converts free long-chain fatty acid to fatty acyl-CoA esters, and thereby plays a key role in lipid biosynthesis and fatty acid degradation [
51]. Atrazine, a triazine herbicide, reported to be an endocrine disruptor in animals, was also shown to affect the lipid profiles of liver and muscle in fish [
52]. It interacted with two genes belonging to the low-density lipoprotein receptor family (LDLR and LRP1). The low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) is involved in the regulation of cholesterol homeostasis by receptor-mediated endocytosis [
53].
While there is biologic plausibility to the interactions we observed, the specific biological mechanisms underlying these interactions are unclear. None of the SNPs we identified in our analysis are known to be functional or have been identified in published GWAS findings for prostate cancer (
http://www.genome.gov/gwastudies/) [
54]; however, they may be in linkage disequilibrium with other functional variants. Research conducted on the role of lipid metabolism in prostate carcinogenesis suggests that the mechanisms are complex, involving an array of intermediate compounds that can be modified by other pathways as well as various genetic, anthropometric, dietary, and lifestyle factors [
55]. It is also possible that mechanisms other than lipid metabolism might play a role in the interactions we observed since most of the genes we identified have multiple functions. For example, genes within the arachidonic acid family play an important role in immunity and inflammation [
56]. Furthermore, considering the findings from previous analyses from the nested case-control study of prostate cancer within AHS, we are seeing some of the same pesticides, such as terbufos, fonofos, carbofuran, EPTC, and petroleum oil, interacting with SNPs in multiple genetic pathways, suggesting that the relationship between pesticides and prostate cancer may involve multiple biologic processes.
In this analysis, we examined SNPs with a minor allele frequency (MAF) >10% because of limited power below this MAF threshold and restricted analyses to SNPs with a main effect association with prostate cancer at P < 0.2 to focus on SNPs potentially more associated with prostate cancer. However, by doing this, we may have excluded important SNPs that modify risk. Interaction analyses were conducted using the dominant genetic model since the number of participants in the homozygous variant group was often small; however, this may have resulted in loss of statistical power if another genetic model was more appropriate. Although some of our findings may be false-positives, we adopted a two-stage interaction approach and utilized FDR to limit this possibility. In addition, we focused our interpretations on interactions with positive monotonic associations between pesticide use and prostate cancer in one genotype and no significant association in the other genotype, which have greater biological plausibility than qualitative interactions, but could have resulted in exclusions of potentially relevant interactions. Due to small sample size we were unable to evaluate interactions by prostate cancer stage or grade.
In conclusion, we observed several positive interactions between pesticide use and variants in lipid metabolism genes. These findings suggest that lipid metabolism may be involved in the associations between pesticides and prostate cancer; however, little is known about the biologic mechanisms underlying these interactions. Furthermore, since this is the first study to explore the interaction between specific pesticide use and variants of genes in the lipid metabolism pathway, our results require replication.