Heavy metal induced oxidative stress & its possible reversal by chelation therapy.

Exposure to heavy metals is a common phenomenon due to their environmental pervasiveness. Metal intoxication particularly neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, or carcinogenicity is widely known. This review summarizes our current understanding about the mechanism by which metalloids or heavy metals (particularly arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury) induce their toxic effects. The unifying factor in determining toxicity and carcinogenicity for all these metals is the generation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. The toxic manifestations of these metals are caused primarily due to imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant homeostasis which is termed as oxidative stress. Besides these metals have high affinity…