Abstract
Humans require about 20 chemical elements. Half of them are essential metal ions. Many additional, non-essential metal ions are present in our bodies through environmental exposures, including in our diet, with functional consequences. Their accumulation is accelerated due to the increasing pollution of soil, air, water and manufacturing processes that employ chemical elements to which we have not been exposed in our evolutionary history. Yet other metal ions are essential for other forms of life, which calls on life scientists to consider the interactions of life processes with most of the chemical elements in the periodic table. Only in this century have attempts been made to integrate specialty disciplines into a science of bioelements called metallomics. Metallomics forms a fifth group when added to the traditional four building blocks of living cells and their areas of investigations, i.e., sugars (glycomics), fats (lipidomics), proteins (proteomics) and nucleic acids (genomics). Neither an understanding of all the essential metals and their interactions nor the functional impacts of the non-essential metals for life, except established toxic elements such as lead, are widely perceived as important in the basic science communities and in the applied sciences such as medicine and engineering. It is a remarkable oversight that this article attempts to address with representative examples.
Highlights
Biochemistry is at the core of the life sciences and medicine
In addition to the six SPONCH elements, at least fourteen other chemical elements are essential for human life, among them are ten metals: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt, copper, zinc and molybdenum; and four non-metals: chlorine, bromine, iodine and selenium
In contrast to the few proteins controlling cobalt metabolism, the number of proteins controlling iron or zinc metabolism is at least an order of magnitude greater, including dozens of proteins to fulfil the numerous functions that these metal ions have in catalysis, structure and regulation of proteins [9]
Summary
Biochemistry is at the core of the life sciences and medicine. In the context of a cell, the basic unit of life, biochemistry teaches us the structure, function and metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids and nucleobases, the four building blocks of the biological macromolecules. Biochemistry involves the chemical elements sulfur, phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, summarized with the acronym SPONCH elements It is seen primarily as organic chemistry, the chemistry of the animate world, as opposed to inorganic chemistry, the chemistry of the inanimate world. In addition to the six SPONCH elements, at least fourteen other chemical elements are essential for human life, among them are ten metals: sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt, copper, zinc and molybdenum; and four non-metals: chlorine, bromine, iodine and selenium. These elements bring the total count to twenty essential chemical elements in humans [2]. While most of the field centers on functions of metal ions as permanent fixtures of metalloproteins, this article highlights areas that increase impact significantly, namely the consequences of perturbing the homeostatic control of metal ions, the role of metal ions as signaling ions in transient interactions with proteins and recent advances in the analytical sciences that allow the description of metal ion distribution and re-distribution with high spatial and temporal resolution as part of the dynamics of cellular functions
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