The association between polymorphisms in miRNA and the cholinesterase activity of workers in an omethoate-exposed environment

To explore the association between polymorphisms in microRNAs (miRNAs) and the cholinesterase (ChE) activity in omethoate-exposed workers, we recruited 180 omethoate-exposed workers and 115 controls to measure their ChE activity using acetylcholine and dithio-bis-(nitrobenzoic acid) and genotype susceptible SNPs in their miRNA by time-of-flight mass spectrometry. ChE activity in the exposure group was lower than that in the control group (P< 0.001). The analysis of covariance result showed that ChE activity was lower in the (- -/- T) genotype inmiR-30ars111456995 (1.97 +/- 0.47) than in the TT genotype (2.23 +/- 0.59) of the exposure group (P= 0.004). Multivariate linear regression was performed to find influencing factors on ChE activity, and variables kept in the model included omethoate exposure (b= -1.094,P< 0.001), gender (b= -0.381,P< 0.001),miR-30ars111456995 (- -/- T)(b= -0.248,P< 0.001), and drinking (b= 0.258,P=0.019). The results suggest that individuals carrying a (- -/- T) genotype inmiR-30ars111456995 were more susceptible to damage in their cholinesterase induced by omethoate exposure.