Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, 1703 E. Mabel Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
Arch Toxicol. 2010 Aug;84(8):585-96. doi: 10.1007/s00204-010-0554-4. Epub 2010 May 26.
Arsenic has been a recognized contaminant and toxicant, as well as a medicinal compound throughout human history. Populations throughout the world are exposed to arsenic and these exposures have been associated with a number of human cancers. Not much is known about the role of arsenic as a human carcinogen and more recently its role in non-cancerous diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus have been uncovered. The health effects associated with arsenic are numerous and the association between arsenic exposure and human disease has intensified the search for molecular mechanisms that describe the biological activity of arsenic in humans and leads to the aforementioned disease states. Arsenic poses a human health risk due in part to the regulation of cellular signal transduction pathways and over the last few decades, some cellular mechanisms that account for arsenic toxicity, as well as, signal transduction pathways have been discovered. However, given the ubiquitous nature of arsenic in the environment, making sense of all the data remains a challenge. This review will focus on our knowledge of signal transduction pathways that are regulated by arsenic.
砷在人类历史上一直被认为是一种污染物和有毒物质，也是一种药用化合物。世界各地的人群都接触到砷，这些接触与许多人类癌症有关。关于砷作为人类致癌物的作用，人们知之甚少，最近发现砷在非癌症疾病（如心血管疾病、高血压和糖尿病）中的作用。与砷有关的健康影响很多，砷暴露与人类疾病之间的关联加剧了对描述砷在人类体内生物活性的分子机制的研究，并导致了上述疾病状态。砷对人类健康构成威胁，部分原因是它调节细胞信号转导途径，在过去几十年中，发现了一些解释砷毒性以及信号转导途径的细胞机制。然而，鉴于砷在环境中的普遍存在，理解所有的数据仍然是一个挑战。这篇综述将集中讨论受砷调节的信号转导途径的知识。
