Keratinous biomarker of mercury exposure associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk in a nationwide U.S. study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener
• Personal Author:
  Andrew, Angeline S. ; O’Brien, Katie M. ; Jackson, Brian P. ; Sandler, Dale P. ; Kaye, Wendy ; Wagner, Laurie ; Stommel, Elijah J. ; Horton, Kevin D. ; Mehta, Paul ; Weinberg, Clarice R.
• 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.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Animals Biomarkers Case-Control Studies Female Humans Keratins Mercury Neurodegenerative Diseases
• Keywords:
  ALS Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Biomarker Keratin Mercury Nail U.S.
• Source:
  Amyotroph Lateral Scler Frontotemporal Degener. 21(5-6):420-427
• Pubmed ID:
  32329357
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7483924
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  ZIA ES103086/ImNIH/Intramural NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P42 ES007373/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P30 CA023108/CA/NCI NIH HHSUnited States/ ; CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; Z01 ES044005/ImNIH/Intramural NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 TS000288/TS/ATSDR CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  21
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6d5810bcd93f8d6ecafecc64bfb1a75200554b4427909711d808da0b865b3f51b0cbf21148f8887ed7382390f50c98345d64f2709945cef88c8cd9715814945f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/93504/cdc_93504_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 417.70 KB ]