Tracing Tellurium and Its Nanostructures in Biology

Abstract

Tellurium (Te) is a semimetal rare element in nature. Together with oxygen, sulfur (S), and selenium (Se), Te is considered a member of chalcogen group. Over recent decades, Te applications continued to emerge in different fields including metallurgy, glass industry, electronics, and applied chemical industries. Along these lines, Te has recently attracted research attention in various fields. Though Te exists in biologic organisms such as microbes, yeast, and human body, its importance and role and some of its potential implications have long been ignored. Some promising applications of Te using its inorganic and organic derivatives including novel Te nanostructures are being introduced. Before discovery and straightforward availability of antibiotics, Te had considered and had been used as an antibacterial element. Antilishmaniasis, antiinflammatory, antiatherosclerotic, and immuno-modulating properties of Te have been described for many years, while the innovative applications of Te have started to emerge along with nanotechnological advances over the recent years. Te quantum dots (QDs) and related nanostructures have proposed novel applications in the biological detection systems such as biosensors. In addition, Te nanostructures are used in labeling, imaging, and targeted drug delivery systems and are tested for antibacterial or antifungal properties. In addition, Te nanoparticles show novel lipid-lowering, antioxidant, and free radical scavenging properties. This review presents an overview on the novel forms of Te, their potential applications, as well as related toxicity profiles.

Cytotoxicity investigations of biogenic tellurium nanorods towards PC12 cell line

“…However, the GSH content and SOD activity were promoted after treatment with lower doses (1 ng/ml) of biogenic Te NRs. It has referred to similarly effect of Te to Se belonging to chalcogens family as cofactor of GPx, glutathione‐ S ‐transferase (GST) and SOD as antioxidative enzymes [1, 2, 9]. Both Se‐xylofuranosides and Te‐xylofuranosides (as organochalcogens) have enhanced the expression of SOD‐3, which is responsible for regulating OS, ageing, and metabolism [33].…”

“…Tellurium (Te) is a metalloid belonging to the chalcogens family. It is chemically related to important biological elements such as oxygen, selenium (Se), sulphur, and polonium that occasionally discovered in the Earth's crust as an elemental crystal [1, 2]. Te has been found in biomolecules like proteins as tellurocyteine and telluromethionine in some bacterial species [3, 4].…”

Discussions of Fluorescence in Selenium Chemistry: Recently Reported Probes, Particles, and a Clearer Biological Knowledge

“…There may be much more interplay between small molecules and particles than we are currently aware of in current probing and therefore many more investigations are necessary [ 174 ].…”

Computational modeling of the kinetics and mechanism of tellurium‐based glutathione peroxidase mimic

“…Current applications of organotellurium compounds are shown in antioxidant activities, intermediates catalysts, nanostructures in biology, and biological detection systems such as biosensors . Rational design of the novel tellurodibenzoic acids was applied from several alternatives of organotellurium compounds as the mimics of kidney‐type glutaminase (KGA) inhibitors because of excellent stability under acidic, basic, and oxidative conditions …”

“…In 2010, Mugesh and coworkers studied the structure, spirocyclization mechanism, and GPX-like antioxidant activity of the stable spirodiazaselenurane and spirodiazatellurane to indicate that the selenium counterparts are less effective as GPx mimics than the tellurium S C H E M E 1 Ebselen and some other important GPx mimics reported based on the selenium and tellurium [11,[17][18][19][20] compounds. [24] Because of the fast oxidation of the tellurium center in the presence of peroxide and the spirodiazatellurane, lower activation energy for the spirocyclization reaction was confirmed.…”