UC Irvine

Background

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide in the world and is purported to have a variety of health effects, including endocrine disruption and an elevated risk of several types of cancer. Blood DNA methylation has been shown to be associated with many other environmental exposures, but to our knowledge, no studies to date have examined the association between blood DNA methylation and glyphosate exposure.

Objective

We conducted an epigenome-wide association study to identify DNA methylation loci associated with urinary glyphosate and its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) levels. Secondary goals were to determine the association of epigenetic age acceleration with glyphosate and AMPA and develop blood DNA methylation indices to predict urinary glyphosate and AMPA levels.

Methods

For 392 postmenopausal women, white blood cell DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip array. Glyphosate and AMPA were measured in two urine samples per participant using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Methylation differences at the probe and regional level associated with glyphosate and AMPA levels were assessed using a resampling-based approach. Probes and regions that had an false discovery rate q<0.1 in ≥90% of 1,000 subsamples of the study population were considered differentially methylated. Differentially methylated sites from the probe-specific analysis were combined into a methylation index. Epigenetic age acceleration from three epigenetic clocks and an epigenetic measure of pace of aging were examined for associations with glyphosate and AMPA.

Results

We identified 24 CpG sites whose methylation level was associated with urinary glyphosate concentration and two associated with AMPA. Four regions, within the promoters of the MSH4, KCNA6, ABAT, and NDUFAF2/ERCC8 genes, were associated with glyphosate levels, along with an association between ESR1 promoter hypomethylation and AMPA. The methylation index accurately predicted glyphosate levels in an internal validation cohort. AMPA, but not glyphosate, was associated with greater epigenetic age acceleration.

Discussion

Glyphosate and AMPA exposure were associated with DNA methylation differences that could promote the development of cancer and other diseases. Further studies are warranted to replicate our results, determine the functional impact of glyphosate- and AMPA-associated differential DNA methylation, and further explore whether DNA methylation could serve as a biomarker of glyphosate exposure. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP10174.