-
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Sep 2016Antimony (Sb) is a toxic metalloid that occurs widely at trace concentrations in soil, aquatic systems, and the atmosphere. Nowadays, with the development of its new... (Review)
Review
Antimony (Sb) is a toxic metalloid that occurs widely at trace concentrations in soil, aquatic systems, and the atmosphere. Nowadays, with the development of its new industrial applications and the corresponding expansion of antimony mining activities, the phenomenon of antimony pollution has become an increasingly serious concern. In recent years, research interest in Sb has been growing and reflects a fundamental scientific concern regarding Sb in the environment. In this review, we summarize the recent research on bacterial antimony transformations, especially those regarding antimony uptake, efflux, antimonite oxidation, and antimonate reduction. We conclude that our current understanding of antimony biochemistry and biogeochemistry is roughly equivalent to where that of arsenic was some 20 years ago. This portends the possibility of future discoveries with regard to the ability of microorganisms to conserve energy for their growth from antimony redox reactions and the isolation of new species of "antimonotrophs."
Topics: Antimony; Bacteria; Biotransformation; Environmental Pollutants; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Oxidation-Reduction
PubMed: 27342551
DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01375-16 -
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences :... Oct 2023Arsenic and antimony are metalloids with profound effects on biological systems and human health. Both elements are toxic to cells and organisms, and exposure is... (Review)
Review
Arsenic and antimony are metalloids with profound effects on biological systems and human health. Both elements are toxic to cells and organisms, and exposure is associated with several pathological conditions including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. At the same time, arsenic- and antimony-containing compounds are used in the treatment of multiple diseases. Although these metalloids can both cause and cure disease, their modes of molecular action are incompletely understood. The past decades have seen major advances in our understanding of arsenic and antimony toxicity, emphasizing genotoxicity and proteotoxicity as key contributors to pathogenesis. In this review, we highlight mechanisms by which arsenic and antimony cause toxicity, focusing on their genotoxic and proteotoxic effects. The mechanisms used by cells to maintain proteostasis during metalloid exposure are also described. Furthermore, we address how metalloid-induced proteotoxicity may promote neurodegenerative disease and how genotoxicity and proteotoxicity may be interrelated and together contribute to proteinopathies. A deeper understanding of cellular toxicity and response mechanisms and their links to pathogenesis may promote the development of strategies for both disease prevention and treatment.
Topics: Humans; Arsenic; Antimony; Metalloids; Neurodegenerative Diseases; DNA Damage
PubMed: 37904059
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-023-04992-5 -
International Journal of Molecular... 2012Arsenic and antimony are toxic metalloids, naturally present in the environment and all organisms have developed pathways for their detoxification. The most effective... (Review)
Review
Arsenic and antimony are toxic metalloids, naturally present in the environment and all organisms have developed pathways for their detoxification. The most effective metalloid tolerance systems in eukaryotes include downregulation of metalloid uptake, efflux out of the cell, and complexation with phytochelatin or glutathione followed by sequestration into the vacuole. Understanding of arsenic and antimony transport system is of high importance due to the increasing usage of arsenic-based drugs in the treatment of certain types of cancer and diseases caused by protozoan parasites as well as for the development of bio- and phytoremediation strategies for metalloid polluted areas. However, in contrast to prokaryotes, the knowledge about specific transporters of arsenic and antimony and the mechanisms of metalloid transport in eukaryotes has been very limited for a long time. Here, we review the recent advances in understanding of arsenic and antimony transport pathways in eukaryotes, including a dual role of aquaglyceroporins in uptake and efflux of metalloids, elucidation of arsenic transport mechanism by the yeast Acr3 transporter and its role in arsenic hyperaccumulation in ferns, identification of vacuolar transporters of arsenic-phytochelatin complexes in plants and forms of arsenic substrates recognized by mammalian ABC transporters.
Topics: ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; Animals; Antimony; Aquaglyceroporins; Arabidopsis; Arsenic; Biological Transport; Glutathione; Humans; Leishmania; Membrane Transport Proteins; Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; Phytochelatins; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; Xenopus laevis; Zebrafish
PubMed: 22489166
DOI: 10.3390/ijms13033527 -
Journal of Hazardous Materials May 2015The increasing interest in urban agriculture highlights the crucial question of crop quality. The main objectives for environmental sustainability are a decrease in... (Review)
Review
The increasing interest in urban agriculture highlights the crucial question of crop quality. The main objectives for environmental sustainability are a decrease in chemical inputs, a reduction in the level of pollutants, and an improvement in the soil's biological activity. Among inorganic pollutants emitted by vehicle traffic and some industrial processes in urban areas, antimony (Sb) is observed on a global scale. While this metalloid is known to be potentially toxic, it can transfer from the soil or the atmosphere to plants, and accumulate in their edible parts. Urban agriculture is developing worldwide, and could therefore increasingly expose populations to Sb. The objective of this review was in consequences to gather and interpret actual knowledge of Sb uptake and bioaccumulation by crops, to reveal investigative fields on which to focus. While there is still no legal maximal value for Sb in plants and soils, light has to be shed on its accumulation and the factors affecting it. A relative absence of data exists about the role of soil flora and fauna in the transfer, speciation and compartmentation of Sb in vegetables. Moreover, little information exists on Sb ecotoxicity for terrestrial ecosystems. A human risk assessment has finally been reviewed, with particular focus on Sb bioaccessibility.
Topics: Agriculture; Animals; Antimony; Biological Availability; Humans; Plants; Risk Assessment; Soil Pollutants
PubMed: 25726907
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.02.011 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Jan 2020Interest in the synthesis of Bi(III) and Sb(III) dithiocarbamate complexes is on the rise, and this has been attributed to their wide structural diversity and their... (Review)
Review
Interest in the synthesis of Bi(III) and Sb(III) dithiocarbamate complexes is on the rise, and this has been attributed to their wide structural diversity and their interesting application as biological agents and in solid state/materials chemistry. The readily available binding sites of the two sulphur atoms within the dithiocarbamate moiety in the complexes confers a wide variety of geometry and interactions that often leads to supramolecular assemblies. Although none of the bismuth or antimony metals are known to play any natural biological function, their dithiocarbamate complexes, however, have proven very useful as antibacterial, antileishmanial, anticancer, and antifungal agents. The dithiocarbamate ligands modulate the associated toxicity of the metals, especially antimony, since bismuth is known to be benign, allowing the metal ion to get to the targeted sites; hence, making it less available for side and other damaging reactions. This review presents a concise chemistry and some known biological potentials of their trivalent dithiocarbamate complexes.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antifungal Agents; Antimony; Antineoplastic Agents; Antiprotozoal Agents; Bismuth; Coordination Complexes; Humans; Models, Chemical; Thiocarbamates
PubMed: 31940910
DOI: 10.3390/molecules25020305 -
Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) Dec 2023Developing biochemical models in systems biology is a complex, knowledge-intensive activity. Some modelers (especially novices) benefit from model development tools with...
MOTIVATION
Developing biochemical models in systems biology is a complex, knowledge-intensive activity. Some modelers (especially novices) benefit from model development tools with a graphical user interface. However, as with the development of complex software, text-based representations of models provide many benefits for advanced model development. At present, the tools for text-based model development are limited, typically just a textual editor that provides features such as copy, paste, find, and replace. Since these tools are not "model aware," they do not provide features for: (i) model building such as autocompletion of species names; (ii) model analysis such as hover messages that provide information about chemical species; and (iii) model translation to convert between model representations. We refer to these as BAT features.
RESULTS
We present VSCode-Antimony, a tool for building, analyzing, and translating models written in the Antimony modeling language, a human readable representation of Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) models. VSCode-Antimony is a source editor, a tool with language-aware features. For example, there is autocompletion of variable names to assist with model building, hover messages that aid in model analysis, and translation between XML and Antimony representations of SBML models. These features result from making VSCode-Antimony model-aware by incorporating several sophisticated capabilities: analysis of the Antimony grammar (e.g. to identify model symbols and their types); a query system for accessing knowledge sources for chemical species and reactions; and automatic conversion between different model representations (e.g. between Antimony and SBML).
AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION
VSCode-Antimony is available as an open source extension in the VSCode Marketplace https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=stevem.vscode-antimony. Source code can be found at https://github.com/sys-bio/vscode-antimony.
Topics: Humans; Antimony; Software; Systems Biology; Language; Models, Biological; Programming Languages
PubMed: 38096590
DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btad753 -
Nature Communications May 2023Leishmania is a unicellular protozoan that has a limited transcriptional control and mostly uses post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, although the...
Leishmania is a unicellular protozoan that has a limited transcriptional control and mostly uses post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, although the molecular mechanisms of the process are still poorly understood. Treatments of leishmaniasis, pathologies associated with Leishmania infections, are limited due to drug resistance. Here, we report dramatic differences in mRNA translation in antimony drug-resistant and sensitive strains at the full translatome level. The major differences (2431 differentially translated transcripts) were demonstrated in the absence of the drug pressure supporting that complex preemptive adaptations are needed to efficiently compensate for the loss of biological fitness once they are exposed to the antimony. In contrast, drug-resistant parasites exposed to antimony activated a highly selective translation of only 156 transcripts. This selective mRNA translation is associated with surface protein rearrangement, optimized energy metabolism, amastins upregulation, and improved antioxidant response. We propose a novel model that establishes translational control as a major driver of antimony-resistant phenotypes in Leishmania.
Topics: Humans; Leishmania; Antimony; Antiprotozoal Agents; Drug Resistance; Leishmaniasis
PubMed: 37147291
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38221-1 -
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Sep 2020Although occupational exposure to antimony and its compounds can produce pulmonary toxicity, human carcinogenic impacts have not been observed. Inhalation studies with... (Review)
Review
Although occupational exposure to antimony and its compounds can produce pulmonary toxicity, human carcinogenic impacts have not been observed. Inhalation studies with respirable antimony trioxide particles administered to rats and mice have, however, induced carcinogenic responses in the lungs and related tissue sites. Genotoxicity studies conducted to elucidate mechanism(s) for tumor induction have produced mixed results. Antimony compounds do not induce gene mutations in bacteria or cultured mammalian cells, but chromosome aberrations and micronuclei have been observed, usually at highly cytotoxic concentrations. Indirect mechanisms of genotoxicity have been proposed to mediate these responses. In vivo genotoxicity tests have generally yielded negative results although several positive studies of marginal quality have been reported. Genotoxic effects may be related to indirect modes of action such as the generation of excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), altered gene expression or interference with DNA repair processes. Such indirect mechanisms may exhibit dose-response thresholds. For example, interaction of ROS with in vivo antioxidant systems could yield a threshold for genotoxicity (and cancer) only at concentrations above the capacity of antioxidant defense mechanisms to control and/or eliminate damage from ROS.
Topics: Antimony; Antioxidants; Humans; Lung Diseases; Mutagenicity Tests
PubMed: 32710957
DOI: 10.1016/j.taap.2020.115156 -
The Science of the Total Environment Oct 2022The fate of antimony (Sb) in submerged soils and the impact of common agricultural practices (e.g., manuring) on Sb release and volatilization is understudied. We...
The fate of antimony (Sb) in submerged soils and the impact of common agricultural practices (e.g., manuring) on Sb release and volatilization is understudied. We investigated porewater Sb release and volatilization in the field and laboratory for three rice paddy soils. In the field study, the porewater Sb concentration (up to 107.1 μg L) was associated with iron (Fe) at two sites, and with pH, Fe, manganese (Mn), and sulfate (SO) at one site. The surface water Sb concentrations (up to 495.3 ± 113.7 μg L) were up to 99 times higher than the regulatory values indicating a potential risk to aquaculture and rice agriculture. For the first time, volatile Sb was detected in rice paddy fields using a validated quantitative method (18.1 ± 5.2 to 217.9 ± 160.7 mg ha y). We also investigated the influence of two common rice agriculture practices (flooding and manuring) on Sb release and volatilization in a 56-day microcosm experiment using the same soils from the field campaign. Flooding induced an immediate, but temporary, Sb release into the porewater that declined with SO, indicating that SO reduction may reduce porewater Sb concentrations. A secondary Sb release, corresponding to Fe reduction in the porewater, was observed in some of the microcosms. Our results suggest flooding-induced Sb release into rice paddy porewaters is temporary but relevant. Manuring the soils did not impact the porewater Sb concentration but did enhance Sb volatilization. Volatile Sb (159.6 ± 108.4 to 2237.5 ± 679.7 ng kg y) was detected in most of the treatments and was correlated with the surface water Sb concentration. Our study indicates that Sb volatilization could be occurring at the soil-water interface or directly in the surface water and highlights that future works should investigate this potentially relevant mechanism.
Topics: Antimony; Arsenic; Oryza; Soil; Soil Pollutants; Volatilization; Water
PubMed: 35691353
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156631 -
Environmental Research Jul 2017Antimony is used as a flame-retardant in textiles and plastics, in semiconductors, pewter, and as pigments in paints, lacquers, glass and pottery. Subacute or chronic...
BACKGROUND
Antimony is used as a flame-retardant in textiles and plastics, in semiconductors, pewter, and as pigments in paints, lacquers, glass and pottery. Subacute or chronic antimony poisoning has been reported to cause sleeplessness. The prevalence of short sleep duration (<7h/night) has been reported to be 37.1% in the general US population, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects 12-28 million US adults. Insufficient sleep and OSA have been linked to the development of several chronic conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression, conditions that pose serious public health threats.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether there is an association between antimony exposure and sleep-related disorders in the US adult population using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2008.
METHODS
We performed multivariate logistic regression to analyze the association of urinary antimony with several sleep disorders, including insufficient sleep and OSA, in adult (ages 20 years and older) participants of NHANES 2005-2008 (n=2654).
RESULT
We found that participants with higher urinary antimony levels had higher odds to experience insufficient sleep (≤6h/night) (OR 1.73; 95%CI; 1.04, 2.91) as well as higher odds to have increased sleep onset latency (>30min/night). Furthermore, we found that higher urinary antimony levels in participants were associated with OSA (OR 1.57; 95%CI; 1.05, 2.34), sleep problems, and day-time sleepiness.
CONCLUSION
In this study, we found that urinary antimony was associated with higher odds to have insufficient sleep and OSA. Because of the public health implications of sleep disorders, further studies, especially a prospective cohort study, are warranted to evaluate the association between antimony exposure and sleep-related disorders.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antimony; Environmental Pollutants; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Nutrition Surveys; Prevalence; Sleep Wake Disorders; United States; Young Adult
PubMed: 28363141
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2017.03.036