Acute and chronic arsenic toxicity
2003/07/01 by R N Ratnaike, Ranjit N. Ratnaike · 1,174 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Environmental Science · Medicine · #Acne and Rosacea Treatments and Effects #Arsenic #Arsenic contamination and mitigation #Arsenic contamination of groundwater #Arsenic poisoning #Arsenic toxicity #Arsenic trioxide #Chemistry #Chronic toxicity #Ingestion #Internal medicine #Medicine #Nausea #Retinoids in leukemia and cellular processes #Surgery #Toxicity
paper · pdf · doi:10.1136/pmj.79.933.391
published in Postgraduate Medical Journal 79(933), 391-396 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2003/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract
Arsenic toxicity is a global health problem affecting many millions of people. Contamination is caused by arsenic from natural geological sources leaching into aquifers, contaminating drinking water and may also occur from mining and other industrial processes. Arsenic is present as a contaminant in many traditional remedies. Arsenic trioxide is now used to treat acute promyelocytic leukaemia. Absorption occurs predominantly from ingestion from the small intestine, though minimal absorption occurs from skin contact and inhalation. Arsenic exerts its toxicity by inactivating up to 200 enzymes, especially those involved in cellular energy pathways and DNA synthesis and repair. Acute arsenic poisoning is associated initially with nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhoea. Encephalopathy and peripheral neuropathy are reported. Chronic arsenic toxicity results in multisystem disease. Arsenic is a well documented human carcinogen affecting numerous organs. There are no evidence based treatment regimens to treat chronic arsenic poisoning but antioxidants have been advocated, though benefit is not proven. The focus of management is to reduce arsenic ingestion from drinking water and there is increasing emphasis on using alternative supplies of water.
Citations
Cited by
- RNF14-dependent atypical ubiquitylation promotes translation-coupled resolution of RNA-protein crosslinks
- Human health effects of air pollution
- The relative impact of toxic heavy metals (THMs) (arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr)(VI), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb)) on the total environment: an overview
- Implicit scaffolding in interactive simulations: Design strategies to support multiple educational goals
- Potential Health Impacts, Treatments, and Countermeasures of Martian Dust on Future Human Space Exploration
- Toxic Mechanisms of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Arsenic
- Endocrine disrupting effects on morphological synaptic plasticity
- Arsenic inorganic exposure, metabolism, genetic biomarkers and its impact on human health: A mini-review
- Was the death of Alexander the Great due to poisoning? Was it Veratrum album?
- Non-obstructive intracellular nanolasers
- King George III and porphyria: an elemental hypothesis and investigation
- Berberine enhances inhibition of glioma tumor cell migration and invasiveness mediated by arsenic trioxide. [europepmc]
- Comparative genomic analysis of the gut bacterium Bifidobacterium longum reveals loci susceptible to deletion during pure culture growth. [europepmc]
- The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database facilitates identification and understanding of chemical-gene-disease associations: arsenic as a case study. [europepmc]
- Toxicity ranking of heavy metals with screening method using adult Caenorhabditis elegans and propidium iodide replicates toxicity ranking in rat. [europepmc]
- Incorporating epigenetic data into the risk assessment process for the toxic metals arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, and mercury: strategies and challenges. [europepmc]
- Association between lifetime exposure to inorganic arsenic in drinking water and coronary heart disease in Colorado residents. [europepmc]
- Promotion of arsenic phytoextraction efficiency in the fern Pteris vittata by the inoculation of As-resistant bacteria: a soil bioremediation perspective. [europepmc]
- The preferential accumulation of heavy metals in different tissues following frequent respiratory exposure to PM2.5 in rats. [europepmc]
- Technologies for Arsenic Removal from Water: Current Status and Future Perspectives. [europepmc]
- Nuclear Folate Metabolism. [europepmc]
- Non-obstructive intracellular nanolasers. [europepmc]
- The Role of Selenium in Arsenic and Cadmium Toxicity: an Updated Review of Scientific Literature. [europepmc]
- Natural variation in C. elegans arsenic toxicity is explained by differences in branched chain amino acid metabolism. [europepmc]
- Arsenic Neurotoxicity in Humans. [europepmc]
- The gut microbiome: an orchestrator of xenobiotic metabolism. [europepmc]
- Arsenic Toxicity: Molecular Targets and Therapeutic Agents. [europepmc]
- The Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in Arsenic Toxicity. [europepmc]
- United States Pharmacopeia (USP) comprehensive review of the hepatotoxicity of green tea extracts. [europepmc]
- Arsenic intoxication: general aspects and chelating agents. [europepmc]
- Arsenic Exposure and Breast Cancer Risk: A Re-Evaluation of the Literature. [europepmc]
- Toxic Mechanisms of Five Heavy Metals: Mercury, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, and Arsenic. [europepmc]
- Unraveling the Underlying Heavy Metal Detoxification Mechanisms of Bacillus Species. [europepmc]
- A review on arsenic in the environment: contamination, mobility, sources, and exposure. [europepmc]
- Disease-associated metabolic pathways affected by heavy metals and metalloid. [europepmc]
- RNF14-dependent atypical ubiquitylation promotes translation-coupled resolution of RNA-protein crosslinks. [europepmc]
Related