Effects of glyphosate exposure on intestinal microbiota, metabolism and microstructure: a systematic review

Abstract

Glyphosate is the most commercialized herbicide in Brazil and in the world, and this scenario has been quite worrying in recent years. In 2015 the glyphosate was classified as potentially carcinogenic by the World Health Organization, which opened avenues for numerous debates about its safe use for non-target species health, including humans. This review aimed to observe the impacts of glyphosate and its formulates on the gut microbiota, as well as on gut microstructure and animal metabolism. A systematic review was conducted based on the PRISMA recommendation and. the search for original articles was performed in Pubmed/Medline, Scopus and Web of Science databases. The risk of bias in the studies was assessed using the SYRCLE strategy. Our findings revealed that glyphosate and its formulations are able to induce intestinal dysbiosis by altering bacterial metabolism, intestinal permeability, mucus secretion, as well as causing damage to the microvilli and the intestinal lumen. Additionally, immunological, enzymatic and genetic changes were also observed in the animal models. At the metabolic level, damage was observed in lipid and energetic metabolism, the circulatory system, cofactor and vitamin metabolism, replication, repair, and translation process. In this context, we pointed out that the studies revealed that these alterations, caused by glyphosate-based herbicides, can lead to intestinal and systemic diseases, such as Crohn's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease.