Arsenic immunotoxicity: a review

Abstract

Exposure to arsenic (As) is a global public health problem because of its association with various cancers and numerous other pathological effects, and millions of people worldwide are exposed to As on a regular basis. Increasing lines of evidence indicate that As may adversely affect the immune system, but its specific effects on immune function are poorly understood. Therefore, we conducted a literature search of non-cancer immune-related effects associated with As exposure and summarized the known immunotoxicological effects of As in humans, animals and in vitro models. Overall, the data show that chronic exposure to As has the potential to impair vital immune responses which could lead to increased risk of infections and chronic diseases, including various cancers. Although animal and in vitro models provide some insight into potential mechanisms of the As-related immunotoxicity observed in human populations, further investigation, particularly in humans, is needed to better understand the relationship between As exposure and the development of disease.

Loss of Notch1-dependent p21Waf1/Cip1expression influences the Notch1 outcome in tumorigenesis

“…Arsenic is a well-known carcinogen, 16 thus the observation of Figure 1 could explain how arsenic trioxide, by decreasing the expression of the tumor suppressor Notch1, contributes to skin carcinogenesis. It is well established that when human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) is chronically exposed to arsenic trioxide, malignant transformation occurs as evidenced by the formation of highly aggressive squamous cell carcinoma after inoculation into nude mice.…”

Immunosuppressive effects of arsenic in broiler chicks exposed to Newcastle disease virus

“…In addition, the lipophilic nature of arsenic makes membranes more prone to damage, for example lipid peroxidation, leading ultimately to cell death (Farombi et al 2007). Elevated ROS levels in un-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after exposure to arsenic as well as release of the ROS by the PBMC could -apart from affecting these immune system cellscause oxidative damage to tissues (Dangleben et al 2013;Urbanska et al 2014) and other immune cells (i.e. local macrophages/monocytes) that might reside in those tissues.…”

“…Although there is information in the literature concerning effects of arsenic toxicity and host responses to the virus (Dangleben et al 2013), there is no information regarding the situation in Pakistan -in particular, immunotoxicological findings in and arsenic-exposed broiler chicks concurrently infected with the NDV. Therefore, the present study describes the effect of arsenic on the immune system of broiler chicks exposed to ND vaccine and field virus.…”

Inorganic Arsenic Determination in Food: A Review of Analytical Proposals and Quality Assessment Over the Last Six Years

“…1 The causal effect of arsenic with regards to cancer was well studied more than twenty years ago. The most recent reviews highlight new research concerning both the toxic and carcinogenic character of iAs, [2][3][4][5] and many proposals have been made on possible arsenic-induced carcinogenic molecular mechanisms. [6][7][8][9] Two reviews use the meta-analysis of toxicity data 10,11 to obtain information concerning the assessment of iAs exposure risk or the possible dose-response relationship, amongst other approaches.…”