Responses and Defense Mechanisms against Toxic Metals 2.0

A special issue of Stresses (ISSN 2673-7140).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 5228

Special Issue Editors

Centre for Kidney Disease Research, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: epidemiology of cadmium toxicity; genetic and nutritional influence of cadmium toxicity outcomes; cadmium toxicity in at-risk subpopulations; novel methods of measuring cadmium in tissues; reverse dosimetry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Departamento de Microbiología y Genética, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Interests: aspergillus fumigatus; zinc; transcription; regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

This Special Issue is the second volume of our previous Special Issue "Responses and Defense Mechanisms against Toxic Metals".

The cellular stress response is a universal reaction of cells to damage to macromolecules (nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids) caused by stressors. Although many responses are not strictly specific, several other stress-specific mechanisms are simultaneously activated to restore or re-establish homeostasis. This Stresses Special Issue calls for epidemiological and experimental studies that investigate animal, human, plant, photoautotrophic, fungal, bacterial, and viral responses to metal and metalloids, namely, cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), etc., as well as excess/homeostatic levels of iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), etc. These are all elements that have been mobilized from non-bioavailable geologic matrices to biologically accessible sources from which they can enter food chains. Indeed, they are not biodegradable, and thus they persist indefinitely in the environment, which facilitates their transfer to food chains. In particular, Cd and Pb in cereals, potatoes, and other vegetables contribute the most to the total intake of these toxic metals (https://encyclopedia.pub/3575), while seafood is a known dietary source of methylmercury.

Authors are invited and welcome to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications. Topics may embrace fundamental cell functions that are responsive to any toxic metal(loid), including excess of metal micronutrients. Examples are heme biosynthesis, heme degradation, and the homeostatic regulation of nutritionally essential Fe, Zn, and Cu. Studies of genetic and nutritional influences on these stress-response and stress-defense mechanisms are favourable, as are those attempting to elucidate the interplay of nutrition, genetics, and the environment in all the above biological systems. Reports of methodological development to probe cellular stressor responses are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Soisungwan Satarug
Dr. Rocío Vicentefranqueira Rodríguez
Prof. Dr. Luigi Sanita' di Toppi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Stresses is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cadmium
  • lead
  • mercury
  • zinc
  • copper
  • iron
  • manganese
  • glutathione
  • heme
  • heme oxygenases
  • heme sensor
  • metallothionein
  • metal homeostasis
  • phytochelatins
  • phytochelatin synthase
  • stress-response mechanism
  • stress response element (StRE)
  • cadmium response element (CdRE)
  • metal response element (MRE)
  • reporter gene assay
  • gene-environment interaction
  • anti-oxidative system

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 2729 KiB  
Article
Surface-to-Volume Ratio Affects the Toxicity of Nanoinks in Daphnids
by Dimitrios Kakavas, Konstantinos Panagiotidis, Keith D. Rochfort and Konstantinos Grintzalis
Stresses 2023, 3(2), 488-499; https://doi.org/10.3390/stresses3020035 - 07 Jun 2023
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Abstract
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has set widely used guidelines that are used as a standardized approach for assessing toxicity in a number of species. Given that various studies use different experimental setups, it is difficult to compare findings across [...] Read more.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has set widely used guidelines that are used as a standardized approach for assessing toxicity in a number of species. Given that various studies use different experimental setups, it is difficult to compare findings across them as a result of the lack of a universally used setup in nano-ecotoxicology. For freshwater species, Daphnia magna, a commonly used filter feeding crustacean, can generate significant molecular information in response to pollutant exposure. One factor that has an effect in toxicity induced from nanomaterials in daphnids is the surface-to-volume ratio of the exposure vessels; however, there is limited information available about its impact on the observed effect of exposure. In this study, daphnids were exposed to silver nanoparticle ink in falcon tubes and Petri dishes for 24 h. Toxicity curves revealed differences in the observed mortality of daphnids, with animals exposed in Petri dishes displaying significantly higher mortality. Differences in the activities of a number of key enzymes involved in the catabolism of macromolecules and phosphate were also observed across the exposure setups, indicating possible differences in the toxicity mechanism of silver nano-ink. Understanding the impact of factors relevant to experimental setups in ecotoxicology can increase the reproducibility of testing, and also reduce experimental costs, time, generated waste, and daphnids used in research. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Responses and Defense Mechanisms against Toxic Metals 2.0)
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17 pages, 10606 KiB  
Article
Hylotelephium maximum from Coastal Drift Lines Is a Promising Zn and Mn Accumulator with a High Tolerance against Biogenous Heavy Metals
by Gederts Ievinsh, Anita Osvalde, Andis Karlsons and Una Andersone-Ozola
Stresses 2022, 2(4), 450-466; https://doi.org/10.3390/stresses2040031 - 25 Nov 2022
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Abstract
Heavy metal tolerance and accumulation potential are the two characteristics most important for plant use in phytoremediation technologies. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterize the tolerance of Hylotelephium maximum from coastal drift line vegetation against the biogenous heavy metals Cu, [...] Read more.
Heavy metal tolerance and accumulation potential are the two characteristics most important for plant use in phytoremediation technologies. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to characterize the tolerance of Hylotelephium maximum from coastal drift line vegetation against the biogenous heavy metals Cu, Zn, and Mn and its metal accumulation potential in controlled conditions. Plants were propagated vegetatively and cultivated in an automated greenhouse in a vegetative state (Experiment 1; Cu, Zn, and Mn) and in flowering-inducing conditions (Experiment 2; Mn gradient). In Experiment 1, total shoot biomass was negatively affected only by Mn at 1.0 g L−1, but root growth was significantly inhibited by all metals at this concentration. Plants accumulated 250 mg kg−1 Cu, 3200 mg kg−1 Zn, and >11,000 mg kg Mn−1 in their leaves. In Experiment 2, only new shoot growth was significantly suppressed at 0.5 g L−1 Mn. At the highest concentrations, shoot biomass progressively declined at the level of inhibition of flower and stem growth. Visual toxicity symptoms of Mn appeared 2 weeks after full treatment on leaves of 2.0 g L−1 treated plants as black dots along the main veins and spread over the leaf surface with time. The maximum Mn accumulation capacity was reached in leaves (15,000 mg kg−1), together with a high translocation factor and bioconcentration factor. The obtained results suggest that the particular accession of H. maximum has very good potential for practical phytoremediation purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Responses and Defense Mechanisms against Toxic Metals 2.0)
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Review

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18 pages, 1416 KiB  
Review
Mitigation of Cadmium Toxicity through Modulation of the Frontline Cellular Stress Response
by Soisungwan Satarug, David A. Vesey and Glenda C. Gobe
Stresses 2022, 2(3), 355-372; https://doi.org/10.3390/stresses2030025 - 15 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1893
Abstract
Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental toxicant of public health significance worldwide. Diet is the main Cd exposure source in the non-occupationally exposed and non-smoking populations. Metal transporters for iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), calcium (Ca), and manganese (Mn) are involved in the assimilation and [...] Read more.
Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental toxicant of public health significance worldwide. Diet is the main Cd exposure source in the non-occupationally exposed and non-smoking populations. Metal transporters for iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), calcium (Ca), and manganese (Mn) are involved in the assimilation and distribution of Cd to cells throughout the body. Due to an extremely slow elimination rate, most Cd is retained by cells, where it exerts toxicity through its interaction with sulfur-containing ligands, notably the thiol (-SH) functional group of cysteine, glutathione, and many Zn-dependent enzymes and transcription factors. The simultaneous induction of heme oxygenase-1 and the metal-binding protein metallothionein by Cd adversely affected the cellular redox state and caused the dysregulation of Fe, Zn, and copper. Experimental data indicate that Cd causes mitochondrial dysfunction via disrupting the metal homeostasis of this organelle. The present review focuses on the adverse metabolic outcomes of chronic exposure to low-dose Cd. Current epidemiologic data indicate that chronic exposure to Cd raises the risk of type 2 diabetes by several mechanisms, such as increased oxidative stress, inflammation, adipose tissue dysfunction, increased insulin resistance, and dysregulated cellular intermediary metabolism. The cellular stress response mechanisms involving the catabolism of heme, mediated by heme oxygenase-1 and -2 (HO-1 and HO-2), may mitigate the cytotoxicity of Cd. The products of their physiologic heme degradation, bilirubin and carbon monoxide, have antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Responses and Defense Mechanisms against Toxic Metals 2.0)
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