Biological effects and epidemiological consequences of arsenic exposure, and reagents that can ameliorate arsenic damagein vivo

// Chinthalapally V. Rao 1 , Sanya Pal 1 , Altaf Mohammed 1 , Mudassir Farooqui 1 , Mark P. Doescher 2 , Adam S. Asch 3 and Hiroshi Y. Yamada 1 1 Center for Cancer Prevention and Drug Development, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Section, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK, USA 2 Stephenson Cancer Center and Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK, USA 3 Stephenson Cancer Center, Department of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Section, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK, USA Correspondence to: Hiroshi Y. Yamada, email: Hiroshi-yamada@ouhsc.edu Chinthalapally. V. Rao, email: cv-rao@ouhsc.edu Keywords: arsenic, reactive oxygen species (ROS), genomic instability, antioxidants, cancer prevention Received: March 10, 2017      Accepted: April 27, 2017      Published: May 10, 2017 ABSTRACT Through contaminated diet, water, and other forms of environmental exposure, arsenic affects human health. There are many U.S. and worldwide “hot spots” where the arsenic level in public water exceeds the maximum exposure limit. The biological effects of chronic arsenic exposure include generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to oxidative stress and DNA damage, epigenetic DNA modification, induction of genomic instability, and inflammation and immunomodulation, all of which can initiate carcinogenesis. High arsenic exposure is epidemiologically associated with skin, lung, bladder, liver, kidney and pancreatic cancer, and cardiovascular, neuronal, and other diseases. This review briefly summarizes the biological effects of arsenic exposure and epidemiological cancer studies worldwide, and provides an overview for emerging rodent-based studies of reagents that can ameliorate the effects of arsenic exposure in vivo . These reagents may be translated to human populations for disease prevention. We propose the importance of developing a biomarker-based precision prevention approach for the health issues associated with arsenic exposure that affects millions of people worldwide.