Dr. Beate Ritz

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43 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 20 May

Dr. Beate Ritz’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Science Friday · Use of herbicide linked to Parkinson's is on the rise in the US · 20 May 2026 podcast

Absolutely.

In terms of biologic understanding, we are.

But I also think we are very close in humans to what we call a causal association because you're not doing human experiments.

You're using observational studies and

But from the animal models, the cell models, and everything we know chemically about Paraquat, I would say we understand quite well what Paraquat does to cells and possibly also does to these dopamine cells that die in Parkinson's disease.

What does it do to cells?

Well, it initiates something we call redox cycling.

And that is a mechanism that generates a lot of what's called oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress is something that you can compare to rusting of a car where molecules are rusting or the membranes of cells are rusting.

basically becoming rancid, like fat becomes rancid when it's out in oxygen for too long.

And that's the kind of processes that actually happen with Paraquat.

But in human mammalian cells and mammalian cells, we also know that Paraquat actually impairs something we call the respiratory chain of mitochondria.

And there's a complex one that

seems to be specifically attacked and taken out by Paraquad.

Yes, exactly.

But it might not even be just dopamine neurons.

It could also be some kind of immune cells that are very reactive in this area of the brain where the dopamine neurons sit.

So this oxidative stress could also just be acting on these immune cells that then become kind of angry.

And when they become angry, they harm the neurons.

So whether it's just dopaminergic neurons who are suffering or the whole system in that part of the brain where these neurons live is not really clear yet.

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