Metabolism and toxicity of arsenic: A human carcinogen

Inorganic arsenic is considered the most potential human carcinogen, and humans are exposed to it from soil, water, air and food. In the process of arsenic metabolism, inorganic arsenic is methylated to monomethylarsonic acid and finally to dimethylarsinic acid, followed by excretion through urine....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current science (Bangalore) 2002-01, Vol.82 (1), p.38-45
Main Authors: Roy, Pradosh, Saha, Anupama
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arsenic
Arsenic compounds
Arsenites
Carcinogens
Chemical hazards
DNA
Humans
Methylation
REVIEW ARTICLE
Soil pollution
Toxicity
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Inorganic arsenic is considered the most potential human carcinogen, and humans are exposed to it from soil, water, air and food. In the process of arsenic metabolism, inorganic arsenic is methylated to monomethylarsonic acid and finally to dimethylarsinic acid, followed by excretion through urine. Thus, arsenic exposure may cause DNA hypomethylation due to continuous methyl depletion, facilitating aberrant gene expression that results in carcinogenesis. Further, though arsenic is non-mutagenic, it interacts synergistically with genotoxic agents in the production of mutations, and also induces chromosome abnormalities and cell proliferation. Few epidemiological investigations in the arsenic endemic regions of West Bengal (India) have established that inorganic arsenicals have the potential to cause skin and lung cancers in humans. Studies on the genetic polymorphism in the arsenic methyltransferase(s) with the population exposed to arsenic, and characterization in the arsenic-induced mutational spectra may be useful for the development of molecular markers and therapeutics and for furthering the knowledge of arsenic-induced carcinogenesis.
ISSN:0011-3891