Recent clinical, experimental and epidemiological studies report that ALS is thought possibly due to a multi-stage process, arising from a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, which alone or superimposed, perhaps on genetic polymorphism yet to be identified, may contribute to the incidence rate of sporadic ALS. In particular, a large amount of evidence suggests that mercury is toxic to motor neurons and may be a risk factor for ALS, playing a part in its pathogenesis. In fact, there have been case reports of ALS or ALS-like symptoms associated with mercury exposure, thus raising the possibility that mercury could be one of the non-genetic factors of the multistep process that is thought to underlie ALS. In order to give recent elucidations on the putative relationship between mercury exposure and ALS, we reviewed all the papers reported in the literature and published on Pubmed from 2006 to 2022. Despite a number of pathogenetic mechanisms that have been linked to mercury, evidence linking exposure to mercury to ALS is not consistent and discordant and, based on the evaluation of the articles, which emerged from our analysis that to date no convincing correlation between mercury and ALS has been established and no conclusive evidence has been enlightened suggesting increased mercury exposure is associated with ALS.
Mercury toxicity and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Ungaro Carmine
Primo
Writing – Review & Editing
;Sprovieri TeresaUltimo
Writing – Review & Editing
2023
Abstract
Recent clinical, experimental and epidemiological studies report that ALS is thought possibly due to a multi-stage process, arising from a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental factors, which alone or superimposed, perhaps on genetic polymorphism yet to be identified, may contribute to the incidence rate of sporadic ALS. In particular, a large amount of evidence suggests that mercury is toxic to motor neurons and may be a risk factor for ALS, playing a part in its pathogenesis. In fact, there have been case reports of ALS or ALS-like symptoms associated with mercury exposure, thus raising the possibility that mercury could be one of the non-genetic factors of the multistep process that is thought to underlie ALS. In order to give recent elucidations on the putative relationship between mercury exposure and ALS, we reviewed all the papers reported in the literature and published on Pubmed from 2006 to 2022. Despite a number of pathogenetic mechanisms that have been linked to mercury, evidence linking exposure to mercury to ALS is not consistent and discordant and, based on the evaluation of the articles, which emerged from our analysis that to date no convincing correlation between mercury and ALS has been established and no conclusive evidence has been enlightened suggesting increased mercury exposure is associated with ALS.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Ungaro et al 2023.pdf
accesso aperto
Tipologia:
Versione Editoriale (PDF)
Licenza:
Creative commons
Dimensione
160.88 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
160.88 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.