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Keratinous biomarker of mercury exposure associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk in a nationwide U.S. study
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8 2020
Source: Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 21(5-6):420-427 -
Alternative Title:Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener
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Personal Author:
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Description:Objective:
The majority of cases of the fatal neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are of unknown etiology. A proportion of these cases are likely to be attributable to contaminant exposures, although the specific environmental etiology of ALS remains largely a mystery. Certain forms of the neurotoxic metal mercury readily cross into the central nervous system. Fish is a dietary source of methymercury, but also of beneficial components, such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Prior work using clinic-based studies of toenails and hair as keratinous biomarkers of exposure suggest elevated mercury levels in ALS patients compared with controls. We sought to validate this relationship in a U.S. case-control comparison of mercury levels in nail clippings.
Methods:
We performed trace element analysis using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) on the nail clippings of n=70 female, geographically representative ALS patients from the National ALS Biorepository and compared them to n=210 age-matched controls from a set of n=1216 nationally distributed controls from the Sister and Two Sister Studies.
Results:
Compared to the lowest quartile of nail mercury, moderate levels were associated with decreased risk of ALS (P=4.18e-6). However, the odds of having nail mercury levels above the 90th percentile were 2.3 fold higher among ALS patients compared with controls (odds ratio (OR)=2.3, 95% confidence interval 1.10 – 4.58, adjusted for age and smoking status).
Conclusions:
This finding suggests that excessive mercury exposure may be associated with the neurodegenerative health of aging populations.
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Pubmed ID:32329357
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC7483924
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