The association of exposure to several heavy metals with prostate cancer risk has been assessed in some studies, but the effects of complex interactions among heavy metals remain unclear. We aim to assess the association between metal mixtures exposure and prostate cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort. Fifteen heavy metals were measured in plasma samples of 62 prostate cancer cases and 242 non-cases from the EPIC-Granada cohort (south Spain) by ICP-MS-ORS. Bayesian kernel machine regression and distributed lag models (BKMR-DLM) were applied to assess the effect of mixtures of metals on prostate cancer risk, which allows accounting for nonlinear, interactive, joint effects and time-varying cumulative effects of mixture exposures. From these models we derived the excess prostate cancer risk for exposure to the mixture at the 75th percentile compared to the 25th percentile, keeping all other metals not involved in the mixture at the 50th percentile. The results demonstrated that four heavy metals (tungsten, copper, mercury, and vanadium) were significantly and positively associated with prostate cancer risk in the adjusted models for potential confounders . Using Bayesian kernel machine regression and distributed lag model (BKMR-DLM), the mixture vanadium+mercury+copper combined with another metal (arsenic, zinc, or cadmium) showed higher associations with prostate cancer risk (RR from 1.59 to 1.46) . The mixture vanadium+mercury had also a positive significant association in combination with cadmium, zinc, arsenic, or selenium. The overall mixture of 8 metals was also significantly associated with the prostate cancer risk (RR=1.45; 95% CI: 1.21 to 1.68). In conclusion, we found positive associations between the plasma levels of four metals (tungsten, copper, mercury, and vanadium) and prostate cancer risk. The overall mixture concentrations were also associated with increased prostate cancer risk. Future studies are warranted to validate these findings in other prospective studies
Cadmium (Cd) is an important inorganic toxicant in the environment which impacts on human health. A metallomic approach based on size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and multidimensional chromatography separation based on SEC coupled to affinity chromatography 2D-SEC-AF-ICP-MS have been applied to achieve a better understanding of the function, detoxification processes and regulation of metals in mice (Mus musculus) under controlled exposure to both Cd and Cd plus (77)Se. Isotopic dilution analysis (IDA) was performed to quantify selenium containing proteins in mice plasma with ICP-qMS as a multielemental detector. Additionally, isotope pattern deconvolution (IPD) was applied to study the fate of enriched (77)selenite in mice subjected to cadmium exposure and the effect of selenoprotein production in plasma. Moreover, the affinity of Cd for SeP in plasma of mice was corroborated using anion exchange chromatography (AEC) after AF separation and identified by organic mass spectrometry. This work illustrates the high reliability of the integrated use of inorganic and organic mass spectrometry to get a metallomic approximation, which provides a good alternative to gain deep insight into the fate of elements in exposed organisms, providing information about metal trafficking, interactions and homeostasis.
Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic heavy metal for humans and animals, which is associated with acute hepatotoxicity. Selenium (Se) confers protection against Cd-induced toxicity in cells, diminishing the levels of ROS and increasing the activity of antioxidant selenoproteins such as glutathione peroxidase (GPx). The aim of this study was to evaluate the antagonistic effect of selenomethionine (SeMet) against Cd toxicity in HepG2 cells, through the modulation of selenoproteins. To this end, the cells were cultured in the presence of 100 µM SeMet and 5 μM, 15 µM, and 25 µM CdCl 2 and a combination of both species for 24 h. At the end of the experiment, cell viability was determined by MTT assay. The total metal content of Cd and Se was analyzed by triple-quadrupole inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-QqQ-MS). To quantify the concentration of three selenoproteins [GPx, selenoprotein P (SELENOP), and selenoalbumin (SeAlb)] and selenometabolites, an analytical methodology based on column switching and a species-unspecific isotopic dilution approach using two-dimensional size exclusion and affinity chromatography coupled to ICP-QqQ-MS was applied. The co-exposure of SeMet and Cd in HepG2 cells enhanced the cell viability and diminished the Cd accumulation in cells. Se supplementation increased the levels of selenometabolites, GPx, SELENOP, and SeAlb; however, the presence of Cd resulted in a significant diminution of selenometabolites and SELENOP. These results suggested that SeMet may affect the accumulation of Cd in cells, as well as the suppression of selenoprotein synthesis induced by Cd.
We evaluated whether quantitation of mRNA molecules of key genes is a reliable biomonitoring end-point. We examined the Mus spretus expression levels of 19 transcripts encoding different cytochrome-P450s and glutathione transferases. Mice dwelling at the Doñana Biological Reserve were compared to those from an industrial settlement (PS). Metal biomonitoring indicated that PS animals sustained a heavier pollutant burden than those from the reference site. Transcript quantitations showed the following: (i) gender-related differences in the expression of most Cyp and Gst genes; (ii) one PS female displaying much smaller/larger transcript amounts than the remaining females; (iii) the concomitant up-regulation of Cyp1a2, Cyp2a5, Cyp2e1, Cyp4a10, Gsta1, Gsta2, Gstm1, and Gstm2 mRNAs in liver of PS males; and (iv) outstanding qualitative and quantitative differences between the hepatic expression signature of PS males and that promoted by paraquat. We conclude that (i) absolute amounts of transcripts encoding biotransformation enzymes are more potent biomarkers in males than in females, and in liver than in kidney; (ii) individual quantitations prevent biased interpretations by specimens with abnormal expression levels; and (iii) transcript expression signature of PS males is consistent with exposure to a complex profile of organic pollutants, other than oxidative stressors.