Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Heavy Metal Toxicity: From Death to Immortality
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Toxicology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 31821
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The prevalence of toxic heavy metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury, in the environment poses increasing concern for human health following exposure via inhalation or ingestion. Once in the body, the metals are distributed in the bloodstream, reaching most organs where they can be taken up by cells using existing transport systems in a form of molecular mimicry. Chronic exposures result in cellular accumulation of heavy metals and once a protective threshold has been exceeded, stress, defense and adaptive responses are initiated.
Pivotal to the cellular response to heavy metal toxicity are reactive oxygen species (ROS), which lead to DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, alteration of signaling and transport proteins or modulation of enzyme activities. Heavy metals may alter the cellular redox status by increasing ROS generation or damaging ROS-scavenging defenses, both resulting in elevated ROS levels, and impacting physiological ROS signaling as well as downstream signaling pathways involved in cellular life and death decisions.
In this context for this Special Issue, investigators and experts in the field are invited to submit high quality original articles reporting novel findings regarding molecular and cellular mechanisms of heavy metals (single or mixtures) or review articles summarizing the status-quo and postulating updated and stimulating hypotheses.
Prof. Dr. Wing Kee Lee
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- oxidative stress
- cell death
- carcinogenesis
- mutations
- toxicology
- molecular mimicry
- signal transduction
- redox status
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