A Review on the Effects of Cadmium Toxicity on Living Beings

Cadmium is a toxic transition heavy metal with perilous effects on the health of animals and humans by indefinite ways. It is one of the asserted carcinogens group given by IARC. There are jillion ways by which cadmium may be prevalent in the environment as the pollutant or may be through contaminated water, food or by smoking. Cadmium poisoning may be seen in the form of itai itai disease. It came in knowledge after its outbreak in Japan in 1960s after the consumption of cadmium-contaminated rice as a food source. The exposure and accumulation of cadmium may lead to numerous forms of cancer, including breast, lung, prostate and nasopharynx, pancreas and kidney cancers. It expresses its effect by formation of stress proteins that depends on the amount of exposure and time of exposure. It had shown effects on the functioning of mitochondria resulting in formation of less energy or ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and more ROS. Other effects are cell apoptosis and inhibit growth, division and carcinogenic activity in cells. The current study has been done to understand the various effects scrutinised by numerous workers.

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)- A Safe and Effective Vasodilator for Stress Perfusion Cardiac Magnetic Resonance

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency and safety of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a stress agent in a cohort of patients undergoing stress perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). Methods This retrospective study was conducted between December 2019 and October 2021 at the Beijing Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China. The study included 107 subjects (age range: 53±11 years; male: female, 62%:38%) with suspected non-obstructive coronary artery disease (NOCAD) that underwent stress CMR. These patients showed typical symptoms such as chest pain (stable and unstable angina pectoris) and <50% epicardial coronary artery stenosis based on coronary angiography. Adverse effects and splenic switch‑off (SSO) phenomenon was evaluated in the patients undergoing stress CMR. Moreover, qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of inducible ischemia was performed by using stress CMR data. Results The qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of stress CMR data showed 82 patients with reversible myocardial ischemia. The hemodynamic response was quick and observed within 2 minutes after ATP infusion. Scanning was stopped in three patients because of atrioventricular block. CMR images of seven out of 104 patients were excluded from the final analysis because of inferior quality. During ATP infusion, 31/107 patients (29%) experienced mild adverse effects such as chest pain, flushing, dyspnea, headache, and atrioventricular block. Myocardial infarction and bronchospasms were not observed during ATP infusion. SSO, a marker of adequate stress, was observed in 91% (94/103) of the patients that underwent stress CMR. Conclusion ATP is highly effective and safe to use in stress CMR as a coronary vasodilator.The hemodynamic response is observed within 2 minutes after ATP infusion.The adverse effects during ATP infusion were mild. SSO was observed in 91% of the patients undergoing stress CMR.

Purinergic Signaling in the Regulation of Gout Flare and Resolution

Gout flares require monosodium urate (MSU) to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome and secrete sufficient IL-1β. However, MSU alone is not sufficient to cause a flare. This is supported by the evidence that most patients with hyperuricemia do not develop gout throughout their lives. Recent studies have shown that, besides MSU, various purine metabolites, including adenosine triphosphate, adenosine diphosphate, and adenosine bind to different purine receptors for regulating IL-1β secretion implicated in the pathogenesis of gout flares. Purine metabolites such as adenosine triphosphate mainly activate the NLRP3 inflammasome through P2X ion channel receptors, which stimulates IL-1β secretion and induces gout flares, while some purine metabolites such as adenosine diphosphate and adenosine mainly act on the G protein-coupled receptors exerting pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory effects to regulate the onset and resolution of a gout flare. Given that the purine signaling pathway exerts different regulatory effects on inflammation and that, during the inflammatory process of a gout flare, an altered expression of purine metabolites and their receptors was observed in response to the changes in the internal environment. Thus, the purine signaling pathway is involved in regulating gout flare and resolution. This study was conducted to review and elucidate the role of various purine metabolites and purinergic receptors during the process.

Special Issue: Hypoxia-Inducible Factors: Regulation and Therapeutic Potential

Oxygen (O2) is an essential molecule [1] in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in cells, and a lack of energy due to O2 deficiency makes the maintenance of biological functions and human life improbable. [...]

Administration of Adenosine Triphosphate Provides Additional Value Over Programmed Electrophysiologic Study in Confirmation of Successful Ablation of Atrioventricular Accessory Pathways

Objectives: To study the benefit of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in evaluating ablation endpoints of accessory pathways (AP) and subsequent long-term prognosis.Methods: We reviewed consecutive patients with supraventricular tachycardias due to APs that underwent radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) from January 2016 to September 2018 in our center. The patients were divided into two groups: the ATP group (who had passed both the ATP test and PES after ablation as the endpoint) and the non-ATP group (who had passed PES only after ablation as the endpoint). We reviewed the patients' intra-cardiac electrograms and analyzed their long-term outcomes.Results: In total, 1,343 patients underwent successful RFCA. There were 215 patients in the ATP group with one lost to follow-up. There were 1,128 patients in the non-ATP group with 39 lost to follow-up. Twenty-three patients in the ATP group demonstrated additional electrophysiological entities due to ATP administration, including reappearance of the ablated APs in 16 patients, discovery of PES-undetected APs in 5, induction of atrial fibrillation in 5, premature atrial contractions in 1, and premature ventricular contractions in another. During the 7 to 39 months (average 24.4 ± 9.5 months) follow-up, the recurrence rate was 8.41% (18/214) in the ATP group and 6.80% (74/1,084) in the non-ATP group. In subjects with recurrence, 14 patients (14/18 = 77.8%) in the ATP group and 50 patients (50/74 = 67.6%) in the non-ATP group accepted redo ablations. Among the ATP-group, all the 14 redo APs were the old ones as before. Among the non-ATP-group, redo ablations confirmed that 39 APs were the old ones, while 20 APs were newly detected ones which had been missed previously. The difference in recurrent AP locations confirmed by redo procedures between the two groups was significant (p = 0.008). In the non-ATP group, 20 (40%) of redo cases were proven to have multiple APs, while 33 (3.3%) cases who did not suffer from recurrence had multiple APs. Existences of multiple APs in recurred cases were significantly higher than that in non-recurred ones in the non-ATP group (p &lt; 0.001), while there was no such difference in the ATP group (p = 0.114).Conclusions: The existence of multiple APs was more common in recurrent cases if ATP was not used for confirmation of ablation endpoints. ATP probably has additional value over PES alone by detecting weak AP conductions. ATP can evoke atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.