Further Studies on the Effectiveness of Arsenic in Preventing Selenium Poisoning

Biological responses related to agonistic, antagonistic and synergistic interactions of chemical species

“…Sodium arsenite and sodium arsenate, when used as sources of arsenic, were equally effective at preventing the toxic action of selenium in albino rats fed with seleniferous wheat (sodium selenite and selenium-cysteine). However, AsS 2 and AsS 3 were ineffective in this experiment [20]. Organic arsenicals have also been shown to protect against selenosis-at least partially.…”

“…Later, studies with human malignant melanoma cells demonstrated that arsenite-induced apoptosis is prevented by selenite [32]. A Human cells As-induced apoptosis is prevented by Se [32] A Mice As prevents carcinogenic effect of Se [30] A Rats As prevents carcinogenic effect of Se [31] A Rats As protects against the toxicity of Se (growth, mortality rate, pathological condition of the liver) [20,33,186] A Rats As induces mucosal glutathione synthesis, explaining its protective effect against Se [187] A Dogs As antagonizes Se-induced subnormal growth and restricted food intake [35] A Cattle As protects against Se toxicity [36] A Hogs As protects against Se toxicity [ Se prolongs the half-lives of Hg-exposed animals [190] A Rats Se changes the subcellular Hg distribution [191] S Oysters High levels of Se increase Hg toxicity [192] SeO 3 2− /MeHg + A Chickens Se changes the subcellular and pattern distribution of Hg [193] A Medaka fish Se protects against Hg-induced histopathological changes [151] SeO 2 /Hg 2+ A Chicks Se toxicity is decreased by Hg [194] SeO 4 2− /MeHg + A Mice Se protects against Hg-induced neurotoxicity [63] Protective effects of arsenic in rats [19,20,23,33,34], dogs [35], cattle [36], mice [37], hogs [38], steers [39], mallards [40] and poultry [41][42][43] have been observed/proposed. Several studies apparently suggest that the same interaction can occur in humans [44][45][46]…”

Experimental Selenium Toxicity in Guinea Pigs: Haematological Studies

“…This may be due to the additive effect of sodium arsenite which is reported to prevent the toxic effect of selenium in sodium selenite [5,16,19], The mechanism by which arsenicals coun teract the toxicity of selenium is not very clear. However, it has been reported that the presence of arsenic facilitates the biliary ex cretion of selenium [10,12,13] and is thus associated with a reduction in haemolysis…”

Identification of [(GS)2AsSe]− in rabbit bile by size‐exclusion chromatography and simultaneous multielement‐specific detection by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy

“…12 Quite unexpectedly, however, the simultaneous ingestion of arsenite along with toxic dietary selenium (seleniferous wheat or sodium selenite) prevented the characteristic symptoms of selenium poisoning in rats. 13,14 The most recent investigation aimed at an elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanism in mammals has revealed the biliary excretion of a previously unknown arsenic-and selenium-containing metabolite in rabbits. This metabolite contained equimolar arsenic and selenium and exhibited arsenic and selenium X-ray absorption near-edge spectra that were essentially identical to those of a synthetic species in solution.…”