砷的代谢机制、毒性和生物监测

砷化合物是备受关注的一类污染物,特别是饮用水中的砷污染引发了全球性的健康问题.本文综述了近年来人们对砷的代谢机制、毒性和生物监测的研究进展.砷在生物体内的代谢过程十分复杂,在氧化还原酶和甲基转移酶的参与下,产生一系列的代谢产物和中间产物.其中,砷的原始摄入形态、代谢产物及中间产物由于不同的物理化学性质,体现了不同的毒性.人类和不同的动物由于不同的砷代谢机理和甲基化能力,也表现了对砷毒性抵抗能力的差异.在生物体内,一些砷化合物与生物蛋白相互作用,影响它们的存在形式、分布和传输,是砷的生物代谢和毒理研究中不可或缺的内容.生物监测是一种直接有效的污染物健康风险评估方法.在尿液、血液、唾液、头发和指甲中砷化合物直接反映了暴露主体的砷暴露程度,这5种生物介质作为砷暴露的生物标志物各有优缺点.在砷的研究中,代谢机制和毒性的研究可以帮助选择合适的生物监测方法,做出合理准确的健康风险评估.生物监测也可促进对砷的代谢机制和毒性的理解,推断可能的代谢途径,定量毒性剂量效应,两者相互依赖相互促进.     

高分子纳米材料与血浆蛋白的相互作用

由于纳米材料具有独特的物理和化学性能,使其在许多领域被广泛应用。纳米材料使用的日益增多要求我们仔细评估其难以预料的毒性（细胞毒性、溶血毒性、血液毒性和免疫毒性）和生物学相互作用。到目前为止,已有大量的研究旨在探索纳米材料与人的细胞或蛋白之间的相互作用,也取得了一些重要成果。在临床应用中,有些生物医用纳米材料常通过静脉注射、渗透、溶解和扩散等方式引入到血液组织中。血液是一种高度复杂的组织,主要由红细胞、白细胞、血小板和血浆组成。其中血浆是一个复杂的体液,它包含超过3700种不同的蛋白质。无论采用哪种方式,这些纳米材料将不可避免地会与丰富的血浆蛋白（或其他血液成分）发生某种联系和相互作用。然而,纳米材料和血浆蛋白之间的相互作用,可能在决定纳米材料的毒性方面起到至关重要的作用。目前对纳米材料与血浆蛋白（或其他血液成分）在分子水平会发生怎样的相互作用知之甚少。本文主要综述了典型的三类高分子纳米材料（包括聚阳离子,高分子胶束和药物（基因）/载体复合纳米粒子）与血浆蛋白的相互作用以及研究这些相互作用相关的分析技术的研究进展,这些内容对体内使用的纳米材料的分子设计和血液安全性非常重要。     

元素形态分析的计量研究进展

元素的生理活性或毒性依赖于其不同的化学形态,如甲基汞、乙基汞等有机汞化合物的毒性远大于无机汞:砷糖、砷甜菜碱等有机砷化合物的毒性要远小于无机砷;而硒代蛋氨酸已经没有无机硒化合物的毒性,甚至成为一种营养物质.因此,检测元素的不同形态化合物,对于考察元素在生物体中和环境中的化学行为与迁移行为具有重要意义.元素形态分析在食品安全、环境保护和临床检验等领域有着广阔的发展前景,建立我国元素形态分析量值溯源体系十分重要.     

砷形态分析

综述了近几年砷形态分析方法的最新研究进展.以常见砷形态分析方法发展为主线,讨论了不同砷形态分析方法的发展过程和应用情况,对不同方法的优缺点进行了扼要评述.早期的砷形态分析方法主要是以色谱和原子光谱联用为主要手段,随着不同的、更为有效的砷化合物检测手段的出现,砷形态分析方法也不断进行完善、发展.目前,在定量分析方面以液相色谱和电感耦合等离子体质谱联用方法为主要常规分析手段;在砷化合物定性分析方面,色谱-电感耦合等离子体质谱与电喷雾质谱相互补充的联用方法逐渐成为了主要分析手段.砷形态分析在环境健康和毒理学方面的应用是目前该领域的主要研究方向,结合国际上最新的研究进展,讨论了砷形态分析方法在环境毒理学等研究中发挥的重要作用.     

食品中元素形态分析解决方案

正元素在不同的形态下具有不同的物理化学性质和生物活性,决定了其在环境中表现出不同的毒性和生物效应,如:无机砷化合物的毒性比较大,有机砷化合物的毒性较小或者基本没有毒性。痕(微)量元素的化学形态信息在环境科学、生物医学、食品科学、营养学、微量元素医学以及商品中有毒元素限量新标准等研究领域中起着非常重要的作用。     

色谱技术在药物-血浆蛋白相互作用研究中的应用进展

小分子药物进入人体血液循环系统后与人血清白蛋白(HSA)、α1-酸性糖蛋白(AGP)等血浆蛋白存在广泛的相互作用,这些相互作用深刻影响药物在体内的分布及其与靶标蛋白的结合,进而影响药物效应的发挥.深入探究药物与血浆蛋白间的相互作用对于候选药物的成药性优化、新药研发、联合用药的风险评控等意义重大.而发展高效、灵敏、准确的...     

砷从农业土壤向人类食物链的迁移

综述了砷在土壤．植物．人类系统中的迁移,包括：砷在环境中的行为,农业系统中砷迁移的动力学过程和粮食中砷的含量,影响砷对植物有效性的各种因子,以及砷在人体内的分布、对人体的营养作用及不同形态对人体的毒性。     

大气颗粒物中砷及其形态的研究进展

大气颗粒物中毒性准金属元素砷及其形态含量变化引起的环境健康问题受到了广泛关注。由于工业生产和煤燃烧等人类活动,砷普遍存在于多种环境介质中。排放到大气中的砷能够随气流进行长距离迁移,致使一些偏远区域大气中的砷含量明显超出欧盟的限制标准(6 ng/m3)。砷的毒性表达很大程度依赖其存在种态,无机砷毒性大于有机砷,且砷(Ⅲ)的毒性明显强于砷(Ⅴ)。本文概述了大气中砷的来源,并选取自2000年来的代表性成果比较了不同国家及不同功能区大气砷的含量变化,同时对1975年来多数关于大气颗粒物中砷形态变化特征的研究进行了评述。     

顺序注射-氢化物发生-原子荧光光谱法测定紫菜中的无机砷和总砷

紫菜中既含有多种有益于人体健康的微量元素,如碘、铁、锌、硒等,也含有多种危害人体健康的重金属元素如铅、镉、汞、砷等。其中砷的毒性受到人们的广泛关注。砷的毒性在很大程度上依赖于其化学形态,毒性从大到小依次为、     

同步荧光法研究大蒜辣素与不同类型蛋白的相互作用

研究大蒜辣素在大鼠血液中的分布及与不同蛋白质的相互作用。采用高效液相色谱法(HPLC)测定大蒜辣素在大鼠血浆及血细胞中的分布情况;荧光及同步荧光光谱法研究大蒜辣素及其转化产物硫化氢与牛血红蛋白、牛人血清白蛋白的相互作用。HPLC测定结果显示大蒜辣素进入血液后部分与血浆蛋白结合,部分进入血细胞后浓度需达到1100μg·mL^-1时才可检测到游离的大蒜辣素,同时可检测到有硫化氢产生;荧光法研究结果显示,大蒜辣素不与牛血红蛋白发生作用,而硫化氢可与牛血红蛋白相互作用;大蒜辣素可与牛及人血清白蛋白相互作用。大蒜辣素与不同类型的蛋白作用不同,为大蒜辣素的成药性研究提供数据支持。     

Enzymatic digestion and chromatographic analysis of arsenic species released from proteins

A method combining gel filtration chromatography (GFC), protease digestion, and ion pair chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection was developed for the determination of arsenic species bound to proteins. The method was first established by examining the interactions of two model proteins, metallothionein (MT) and hemoglobin, with three reactive trivalent arsenic species. It was then successfully applied to the speciation of arsenic in red blood cells of rats. Inorganic arsenite (iAs^III), monomethylarsonous acid (MMA^III), and dimethylarsinous acid (DMA^III) were efficiently released from the proteins by protease digestion at pH 8.0, with the recovery ranging from 93% to 106%. There was no oxidation of iAs^III or MMA^III during the protease digestion process. Up to 61% DMA^III (the least stable arsenic species) was unchanged, and the rest was oxidized to the pentavalent dimethylarsinic acid (DMA^V). The arsenic species in the red blood cells of control rats was present as DMA^III complex with hemoglobin. The method enabling the determination of the specific arsenic species that bind to cellular proteins is potentially useful for studying arsenic distribution, metabolism, and toxicity.     

Investigation of the Interaction Between Sodium （meta） Arsenite and Catechin via ESI Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Catechin,one of the main components of green tea,is considered to have the remedy effect of arsenic poison,although the chemical mechanism is not well known.In this study,sodium(meta)selenite,which is used as herbicide and insecticide as well as rodenticide,was simply mixed with catechin in the CH3OH/H2O(volume ratio 50∶50)solution to investigate the interaction between toxic inorganic arsenic compound and catechin via ESI tandem mass spectrometry.The interaction products of mono-methylated arsenic with catechin in the presence of methanol were identified in the negative mode.Collission induced dissociation(CID)mass spectrometric measurements indicate that monomethylated arsenic was "alkylated" strongly by conjugation at the sites of C2' and C5' in the phenyl ring B of the catechin.The interaction mechanism between sodium(meta)arsenite and catechin was proposed.The results provide useful information to understand the chemical pathway of the detoxification of the arsenic toxicity by catechin.     

Investigation of the interaction between arsenic species and thiols via electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry

Arsenic species have been known to participate in a number of chemical and biological reactions, including oxidation-reduction reactions, acid-base reactions, covalent interactions, and methylation-demethylation reactions because of the element's multiple and interconvertible oxidation states. Little is known about the structure or bonding behavior between arsenic species and thiolcontaining biomolecules. Therefore, a better understanding of the bonding behavior and detailed information on the molecular structure for arsenic-thiol complexes is needed. As a result, we have investigated the interaction between arsenic species (arsenate (As^V), arsenite (As^III), monomethylarsonic acid (MMA^V), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA^V)) with biomolecules containing thiol groups (glutathione and cysteine) by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). These compounds were dissolved in methanol/water solution and introduced into the MS instrument in order to elucidate the direct bonding behavior of thiol group of biomolecules with arsenic species. In addition, further detailed structural information on this complex was obtained by collision-induced dissociation (CID) measurements.In each mass spectrum for mixture solutions between arsenic species and thiol compounds, various peaks such as protonated arsenic-thiol complexes, protonated noncomplexed thiol compounds, sodium bound cluster ions, and proton bound cluster ions were observed. In these mass spectra, the arsenic complexes were formed by interaction with thiol groups on the cysteine residues. These arsenic-thiol complexes produced a variety of fragment ions by cleavage of chemical bonds, and by interaction of other binding site on thiol compounds in tandem mass spectrometry experiments.     

Arsenic speciation analysis

Nearly two dozen arsenic species are present in the environmental and biological systems. Differences in their toxicity, biochemical and environmental behaviors require the determination of these individual arsenic species. Considerable analytical progresses have been made toward arsenic speciation analysis over the last decade. Hyphenated techniques involving a highly efficient separation and a highly sensitive detection have become the techniques of choice. Methods based on high-performance liquid chromatography separation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, hydride generation atomic spectrometry, and electrospray mass spectrometry detection have been shown most useful for arsenic speciation in environmental and biological matrices. These hyphenated techniques have resulted in the determination of new arsenic species, contributing to a better understanding of arsenic metabolism and biogeochemical cycling. Methods for extracting arsenic species from solid samples and for stabilizing arsenic species in solutions are required for obtaining reliable arsenic speciation information.     

Arsenic and its speciation in water samples by high performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry--last decade review

Arsenic composes a danger for human health all over the world as it is responsible for water resources contamination. The toxicity of arsenic depends on its chemical form. However, occurrence of particular arsenic species is dependent on processes occurring in water. Nowadays, more arsenic species is detected and analyzed in different kind of water (mineral, tap, waste), mainly owing to great possibilities resulting from coupling high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This review mainly describes arsenic speciation analysis by HPLC-ICP-MS technique on the basis of articles that have been published since 2000. Arsenic chemistry, occurrence in different kind of water, total arsenic determination with interferences elimination and its validation and analytical performance are also reviewed.     

Arsenic Speciation in Urine and Blood Reference Materials

Acute and chronic exposure to arsenic is a growing problem in the industrialized world. Arsenic is a potent carcinogen and toxin in humans. In the body, arsenic is metabolized to produce several species, including inorganic forms, such as trivalent (As^III) and pentavalent (As^V), and the methylated metabolites such as monomethylarsonic acid, (MMA^V), and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA^V), in addition to arsenobetaine (AsB) which is ingested and excreted from the body in the same form. Each of these species has been reported to possess a specific but different degree of toxicity. Thus, not only is the measurement of total As required, but also quantification of the individual metabolites is necessary to evaluate the toxicity and risk assessment of this element. There are a large number of reference materials that are used to validate methodology for the analysis of As in blood and urine, but they are limited to total As concentrations. In this study, the speciation of five arsenic metabolites is reported in blood and urine from commercial available control materials certified for total arsenic levels. The separation was performed with an anion exchange column using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry as a detector. Baseline separation was achieved for As^III, As^V, MMA^V, DMA^V, and AsB, allowing us to quantify all five species. Excellent agreement between the total arsenic levels and the sum of the speciated As levels was obtained.     

Distribution of Arsenic Species in Different Leaf Fractions – An Evaluation of the Biochemical Deposition of Arsenic in Plant Cells

This paper describes an approach to the determination of arsenic species bonding with proteins or low-molecular peptides by separation of leaf proteins and protein precursors into three fractions and analysis of arsenic species associated to these fractions. Plants irrigated with arsenite contained not only arsenite but also arsenate and dimethylarsinate. In plants treated with arsenate, the major component was arsenite in the water-soluble fraction containing soluble protein and non-protein (F II) and in the acid-soluble non-protein fraction (F IV). Concentrations of 43 mg kg⁻¹ (As(V)-treatment) and 18 mg kg⁻¹ (As(III)-treatment) could be analyzed in the water-insoluble structure protein fraction F I (56 ± 15% of the total mass). Based on the concentration of arsenic species in all fractions, conclusions are drawn over the fixation of arsenic in the fraction of insoluble structure proteins, in the fraction of soluble cytosolic proteins as well as the fraction of amino acids.     

Investigation of the degradation of arsenobetaine during its contact with natural zeolites and the identification of metabolites using HPLC coupled with ICP-MS and ESI-MS

Combined detection by inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for elemental information (quantification) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) for molecular information (identification) by means of splitting of the eluent after chromatographic separation is a suitable means of analysis for unknown and not commercially available arsenic species. Simultaneous parallel ESI-MS and ICP-MS detection was applied to identify possible metabolites during the interaction of arsenobetaine (AsB) with natural zeolites. AsB, mainly produced by freshwater and marine organisms, is known to be a candidate of low toxicity. To estimate the possible toxicological risk originating from AsB in contact with natural and synthetic zeolites, small particles of a naturally occurring zeolite were mixed with an AsB solution. After a contact time of 56 days the degradation of AsB proceeded with different yields in the case of the natural Mexican zeolites. In contrast, no additional components were detected in the control samples. It was possible to clearly identify the degradation products dimethylarsinate (m/z 139) and dimethylarsinoylacetate (m/z 181) by comparison of the peaks monitored by ESI-MS and ICP-MS. In some other cases the unknown arsenic species could not be identified so clearly from their molecular masses.     

Arsenic-induced protein phosphorylation changes in HeLa cells

Arsenic is well documented as a chemotherapeutic agent capable of inducing cell death while at the same time is considered a human carcinogen and an environmental contaminant. Although arsenic toxicity is well known and has formed an impressive literature over the time, little is known about how its effects are exerted at the proteome level. Protein phosphorylation is an important post-translational modification involved in the regulation of cell signaling and likely is altered by arsenic treatment. Despite the importance of phosphorylation for many regulatory processes in cells, the identification and characterization of phosphorylation, as effected by arsenic through mass spectrometric detection, are not fully studied. Here, we identify phosphorylated proteins, which are related to post-translational modifications after phenylarsine oxide (PAO) inoculation to HeLa cells. PAO was chosen because of its high cytotoxicity, measured earlier in these labs. In this study, size exclusion chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SEC-ICP-MS) is used to establish several molecular weight fractions with phosphorylated proteins by monitoring ³¹P signal vs. time via ICP-MS. SEC-ICP-MS fractions are collected and then separated by the nano-LC-CHIP/ITMS system for peptide determination. Spectrum Mill and MASCOT protein database search engines are used for protein identification. Several phosphorylation sites and proteins related to post-translational modifications are also identified.     

Arsenic concentration and speciation in infant formulas and first foods

Arsenic exposure to humans is pervasive, and, increasingly, studies are revealing adverse health effects at ever lower doses. Drinking water is the main route of exposure for many individuals; however, food can be a significant source of arsenic to an individual, especially if their diet is rice-based. Infants are particularly susceptible to dietary exposure, since many first foods contain rice and they have a low body mass. Here we report on arsenic concentration and speciation in infant formulas and first foods. Speciation is essential for food analysis because of the much greater toxicity of inorganic arsenic species and the possibility that arsenic in food (unlike water) may be present in either inorganic or organic forms. Infant milk formulas were low in total arsenic (2.2-12.6 ng g(-1), n=15). Non-dairy formulas were significantly higher in arsenic than dairy-based formulas. Arsenic in formula was almost exclusively inorganic and predominantly arsenic(V). Arsenic concentration in purees (n=41) and stage 3 foods (n=18) ranged from 0.3-22 ng g(-1). Rice-fortified foods had significantly higher total arsenic concentrations than non rice-based foods. Again arsenic speciation was predominantly inorganic; arsenic(III) was the main species with lower concentrations of DMA and arsenic(V) also present. These data confirm that infants are exposed to arsenic via diet, and suggest that careful attention to diet choices may limit this.