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Pharmacokinetics Approach for Nanotoxicity Evaluation
Published in Vineet Kumar, Nandita Dasgupta, Shivendu Ranjan, Nanotoxicology, 2018
The biodegradation of iron oxide nanomaterials releases iron ions into the body. It is generally assumed that the specialized metabolism mechanisms which regulate iron in the organism are also involved in the cellular processing of iron oxide nanomaterials. About six decades ago, Nissim and Richter did pioneering work on the in vivo biodegradation of iron oxide particles and the role of iron storage proteins, viz. transferrin and ferritin, in the biodistribution of their degradation by-product, that is, iron in the body. The released iron ions bind to an iron binding protein, namely apoferritin, in the cytoplasm to form ferritin and when detached from the ferritin bind to apotransferrin to form transferrin. Levy et al. (2011) used a combination of multiple magnetic characterization techniques, intracellular transmission electron microscopy imaging, and inductively coupled plasma quantification techniques to evidence the biotransformation of superparamagnetic maghemite nanomaterials into poorly-magnetic iron species probably stored into ferritin proteins in mouse liver and spleen over a period of three months. Iron oxide nanomaterials injected intravenously get dissolved in the acidic environment of the lysosome compartments of macrophages present in different MPS organs, especially the liver and spleen (Arbab et al. 2005; Wahajuddin and Arora 2012). The degradation rate of iron oxide nanomaterials was found to be slow in spleen macrophages in comparison to liver Kupffer cells due to fewer iron storage proteins in the spleen (Lartigue et al. 2013).
Clinical Effects of Pollution
Published in William J. Rea, Kalpana D. Patel, Reversibility of Chronic Disease and Hypersensitivity, Volume 5, 2017
William J. Rea, Kalpana D. Patel
The toxicity of iron can be explained by the fact that it is highly radioactive.155 Under normal circumstances, most cellular iron is sequestered by proteins. However, when the level of iron exceeds the capacity of iron-binding proteins, labile iron results. Hydrogen peroxide, which is constantly generated by mitochondrial electron transport, can be converted to extremely toxic hydroxyl free radicals in the presence of labile iron via the Fenton and Haber–Weiss reactions.155 These free radicals may elicit an array of cellular damage, including protein carboxylation and lipid peroxidation, and eventually evoke neuronal death. Since neurons normally have a high metabolic demand, they tend to be more susceptible to iron-induced oxidative damage. Moreover, iron has also been found to facilitate abnormal protein aggregation, which contributes to the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative disorders.156–158 However, the molecular mechanism of iron accumulation in neurodegenerative diseases such as AD and PD remains elusive.
Microremediation of tannery wastewater by siderophore producing marine bacteria
Published in Environmental Technology, 2020
A. S. Vijayaraj, C. Mohandass, Devika Joshi
Marine bacteria are a lucrative option for bioremediation of tannery wastewater as they are adapted to adverse conditions of marine environment including varying temperature, salinity, pH, currents and precipitation. Hence marine bacteria which are suitably adapted to the adverse conditions possess naturally occurring metabolic capability to degrade, transform and/or accumulate several pollutants like toxic metals, organic load, recalcitrant hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compounds and pharmaceutical substances [19,20]. Production of siderophore is one of such metabolic capabilities of bacteria which can be harnessed for bioremediation. Siderophores are iron binding proteins with low molecular weight having the ability to bind a variety of metals in addition to iron, such as chromium, manganese, magnesium and gallium [21]. Hence they hold great potential to be employed for bioremediation which can be beneficial from both environmental and economic point of view [22].