Metal-metal interaction and metal toxicity: a comparison between mammalian and D. melanogaster

Abstract

1. Non-essential heavy metals such as mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and aluminium (Al) are useless to organisms and have shown extensive toxic effects. Previous studies show that two main molecular mechanisms of metal toxicity are oxidative stress and metal-metal interaction which can disrupt metal homeostasis.

2. In this paper, we mainly illustrate metal toxicity and metal-metal interaction through examples in mammalians and D. melanogaster (fruit fly).

3. We describe the interference of metal homeostasis by metal-metal interactions in three aspects including replacement, cellular transporter competition, and disruption of the regulation mechanism, and elaborate the mechanisms of metal toxicity to better deal with the challenges of heavy metal pollution and related health problems.

Keywords:

• Metal-metal interaction
• metal toxicity
• homeostasis
• D. melanogaster
• cellular transport

Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Dr, Bernard Moussian (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, FR), Dr. Xin Mu (Tianjin University, CN) and Dr. Li Yan (King's College London, UK) for helpful discussions and comments.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) report no declarations of interest.