Cunha Rodrigo L O R, Gouvea Iuri E, Juliano Luiz
Departamento de Ciências Exatas e da Terra, UNIFESP, Diadema, SP, Brasil.
An Acad Bras Cienc. 2009 Sep;81(3):393-407. doi: 10.1590/s0001-37652009000300006.
Tellurium is a rare element which has been regarded as a toxic, non-essential trace element and its biological role is not clearly established to date. Besides of that, the biological effects of elemental tellurium and some of its inorganic and organic derivatives have been studied, leading to a set of interesting and promising applications. As an example, it can be highlighted the uses of alkali-metal tellurites and tellurates in microbiology, the antioxidant effects of organotellurides and diorganoditellurides and the immunomodulatory effects of the non-toxic inorganic tellurane, named AS-101, and the plethora of its uses. Inasmuch, the nascent applications of organic telluranes (organotelluranes) as protease inhibitors and its applications in disease models are the most recent contribution to the scenario of the biological effects and applications of tellurium and its compounds discussed in this manuscript.
碲是一种稀有元素，一直被视为有毒的非必需微量元素，其生物学作用至今尚未明确确立。除此之外，人们还研究了元素碲及其一些无机和有机衍生物的生物学效应，从而产生了一系列有趣且有前景的应用。例如，可以强调碱金属亚碲酸盐和碲酸盐在微生物学中的用途、有机碲化物和二有机二碲化物的抗氧化作用以及无毒无机碲烷（名为AS-101）的免疫调节作用及其众多用途。同样，有机碲烷（有机碲化物）作为蛋白酶抑制剂的新应用及其在疾病模型中的应用是本文所讨论的碲及其化合物生物学效应和应用场景的最新贡献。
