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Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony

Antimony has been known and used since ancient times, but its applications have increased significantly during the last two centuries. Aside from its few medical applications, it also has industrial applications, acting as a flame retardant and a catalyst. Geologically, native antimony is rare, and...

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Autores principales: Periferakis, Argyrios, Caruntu, Ana, Periferakis, Aristodemos-Theodoros, Scheau, Andreea-Elena, Badarau, Ioana Anca, Caruntu, Constantin, Scheau, Cristian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9030621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35457536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084669
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author Periferakis, Argyrios
Caruntu, Ana
Periferakis, Aristodemos-Theodoros
Scheau, Andreea-Elena
Badarau, Ioana Anca
Caruntu, Constantin
Scheau, Cristian
author_facet Periferakis, Argyrios
Caruntu, Ana
Periferakis, Aristodemos-Theodoros
Scheau, Andreea-Elena
Badarau, Ioana Anca
Caruntu, Constantin
Scheau, Cristian
author_sort Periferakis, Argyrios
collection PubMed
description Antimony has been known and used since ancient times, but its applications have increased significantly during the last two centuries. Aside from its few medical applications, it also has industrial applications, acting as a flame retardant and a catalyst. Geologically, native antimony is rare, and it is mostly found in sulfide ores. The main ore minerals of antimony are antimonite and jamesonite. The extensive mining and use of antimony have led to its introduction into the biosphere, where it can be hazardous, depending on its bioavailability and absorption. Detailed studies exist both from active and abandoned mining sites, and from urban settings, which document the environmental impact of antimony pollution and its impact on human physiology. Despite its evident and pronounced toxicity, it has also been used in some drugs, initially tartar emetics and subsequently antimonials. The latter are used to treat tropical diseases and their therapeutic potential for leishmaniasis means that they will not be soon phased out, despite the fact the antimonial resistance is beginning to be documented. The mechanisms by which antimony is introduced into human cells and subsequently excreted are still the subject of research; their elucidation will enable us to better understand antimony toxicity and, hopefully, to improve the nature and delivery method of antimonial drugs.
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spelling pubmed-90306212022-04-23 Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony Periferakis, Argyrios Caruntu, Ana Periferakis, Aristodemos-Theodoros Scheau, Andreea-Elena Badarau, Ioana Anca Caruntu, Constantin Scheau, Cristian Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Antimony has been known and used since ancient times, but its applications have increased significantly during the last two centuries. Aside from its few medical applications, it also has industrial applications, acting as a flame retardant and a catalyst. Geologically, native antimony is rare, and it is mostly found in sulfide ores. The main ore minerals of antimony are antimonite and jamesonite. The extensive mining and use of antimony have led to its introduction into the biosphere, where it can be hazardous, depending on its bioavailability and absorption. Detailed studies exist both from active and abandoned mining sites, and from urban settings, which document the environmental impact of antimony pollution and its impact on human physiology. Despite its evident and pronounced toxicity, it has also been used in some drugs, initially tartar emetics and subsequently antimonials. The latter are used to treat tropical diseases and their therapeutic potential for leishmaniasis means that they will not be soon phased out, despite the fact the antimonial resistance is beginning to be documented. The mechanisms by which antimony is introduced into human cells and subsequently excreted are still the subject of research; their elucidation will enable us to better understand antimony toxicity and, hopefully, to improve the nature and delivery method of antimonial drugs. MDPI 2022-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9030621/ /pubmed/35457536 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084669 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Periferakis, Argyrios
Caruntu, Ana
Periferakis, Aristodemos-Theodoros
Scheau, Andreea-Elena
Badarau, Ioana Anca
Caruntu, Constantin
Scheau, Cristian
Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title_full Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title_fullStr Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title_full_unstemmed Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title_short Availability, Toxicology and Medical Significance of Antimony
title_sort availability, toxicology and medical significance of antimony
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9030621/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35457536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19084669
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