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Arsenic Toxicity
Published in Charles Theisler, Adjuvant Medical Care, 2023
Acute arsenic toxicity is most frequently caused by accidental ingestion of pesticides or an attempted suicide. Complications of acute arsenic toxicity may include hemolysis, skin rash, Mees lines in the nails, toxic cardiomyopathy, vomiting, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain, diarrhea, and black water urine (dark urine). In acute poisoning, hemodynamic stabilization is of primary importance. Acute arsenic poisoning can lead to cancer, liver disease, coma, and death. Medical treatment of arsenic poisoning typically involves bowel irrigation, medication, and chelation therapy.
CBRN and the Trauma Victim
Published in Ian Greaves, Keith Porter, Jeff Garner, Trauma Care Manual, 2021
Ian Greaves, Keith Porter, Jeff Garner
Lewisite (named after its inventor) is a lethal arsenic-based blistering agent with initial acid-like effects with immediate pain and grey coloured chemical burns. The arsenic component also causes systemic toxicity (arsenic poisoning) and death due to inhibition of glucose metabolism leading to haemolysis, renal failure, distributive hypovolemia and lung damage if inhaled.
Alcohol, drugs, toxins and post-mortem toxicology
Published in Helen Whitwell, Christopher Milroy, Daniel du Plessis, Forensic Neuropathology, 2021
Colin Smith, Christopher Milroy
Arsenic has been a classic poison in homicides, with such poisoners as Armstrong and the Seddons being notable British cases. Arsenic is available in a trivalent form and an organic pentavalent form. In acute deaths, the findings may be minimal. Where poisoning is more chronic, symptoms relating to the gastrointestinal tract may result in a mistaken diagnosis of gastroenteritis. A peripheral neuropathy may develop with Wallerian degeneration seen in the distal nerves. Whilst homicidal arsenic poisoning is rare, it still occurs and the last case seen by the authors involved the mistaken diagnosis of gastroenteritis. A peripheral neuropathy was ascribed to diabetes mellitus by the clinicians. Post-mortem toxicology confirmed arsenic poisoning with hair analysis confirming repeated administration.
Betaine attenuates sodium arsenite-induced renal dysfunction in rats
Published in Drug and Chemical Toxicology, 2022
Sumedha Sharma, Tajpreet Kaur, Ashwani Kumar Sharma, Balbir Singh, Devendra Pathak, Harlokesh Narayan Yadav, Amrit Pal Singh
Arsenic poisoning causes health hazard is a major issue across the globe and World Health Organization (WHO) considers arsenic contamination as a medical complication requiring serious redress for this crisis (Steinmaus et al.2005). WHO suggests the safety limit of arsenic at 10 μg/L and the greatest limit of 50 μg/L in drinking water. It is estimated that 94–220 million people worldwide are exposed to higher arsenic concentrations in groundwater (Podgorski and Berg 2020). Arsenic exists in the environment as trivalent (As3+, arsenite) and pentavalent (As5+, arsenate) forms and arsenite is considered more toxic than arsenate (Craig 2004). Higher arsenic levels cause cardiovascular dysfunction, diabetes mellitus, neurotoxicity, nephrotoxicity. Clinical data suggest a positive correlation between higher arsenic levels in drinking water and the occurrence of kidney disease (Hsueh et al.2009; Cheng et al.2018; Yang et al.2019). Animal studies revealed that arsenic disturbs redox balance thereby causing oxidative stress, apoptosis and eventual renal damage (Singh et al.2009).
Potential Protective Effect of Spirulina Platensis on Sodium Arsenite Induced Cardiotoxicity in Male Rats
Published in Tissue Barriers, 2022
Amal Albtoosh, Fardous Karawya, Wesam Al-Naymat, Aiman Al-Qaitat
Chronic arsenic poisoning can cause serious health problems including cancers, hyperkeratosis, restrictive lung disease, and ischemic heart disease, noncancerous skin lesions, bronchitis, hepatomegaly, neuropathy, peripheral vascular diseases, and cardiovascular disease. The increased production of free radicals yielding to oxidative stress has been assumed as one of the major mechanisms behind arsenic-induced poisoning in different organs. The high production of free radicals via oxidative stress has been implicated as one of the numerous mechanisms related to arsenic-induced toxic effects in different organs. The potential of dietary antioxidants to reduce the arsenic burden in human by increasing its metabolism has drawn attention in recent years. Vitamins such as A, E, C routine with arsenic-free water were shown to be successful in improving arsenic-induced melanosis and keratosis. Some investigators suggested that the effectiveness of retinol, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, selenium, tocopherol, alpha lipoic acid, spinach, for the reduction of body burden of chronic arsenic toxicity. Spirulina extract plus zinc was found to be advantageous in patients of chronic arsenic poisoning.16–21
MicroRNA-217: a therapeutic and diagnostic tumor marker
Published in Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 2022
Amir Abbas Hamidi, Malihe Zangoue, Daniel Kashani, Amir Sadra Zangouei, Hamid Reza Rahimi, Mohammad Reza Abbaszadegan, Meysam Moghbeli
Arsenic poisoning occurs during permanent exposure to arsenic-contaminated water or burning of coal with high levels of arsenic. Even a low arsenite dose, as a biologically-active compound containing arsenic, can transform human keratinocytes into malignant cells [90]. Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), as one of the subunits of the polycomb repressive complex, is capable of methylating histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27) in order to enhance transcriptional gene silencing. It can also act as a transcriptional activator [91,92]. This transcriptional activator is associated with initiation, progression, drug resistance, and metastasis of cancers [93]. It regulates prolongs cell survival, while inhibits E2F1-dependent apoptosis [94]. EMT is a critical process during tumor cell invasion and metastasis. EZH2 is involved in EMT induction via up regulation of Vimentin and down regulation of CDH1 in tumor cells [95]. It has been shown that circ100284 increased cell cycle progression in As-HaCaT cells. Arsenite also up regulated the circ100284 that sponged miR-217 to up regulate EZH2 and CCND1. Arsenic, as an environmental carcinogen, induces the expression of circ100284, affecting the migratory, invasive, and colony-forming abilities of T-HaCaT cells through regulating EZH2 by miR-217 [96].