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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Publication Detail

Title: Multibiomarker approach to assess the magnitude of occupational exposure and effects induced by a mixture of metals.

Authors: Lopes de Andrade, V; Serrazina, D; Mateus, M L; Batoréu, C; Aschner, M; Marreilha Dos Santos, A P

Published In Toxicol Appl Pharmacol, (2021 Oct 15)

Abstract: Metals and metalloids including lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and manganese (Mn) can occur as mixtures in occupational contexts, such as mines. These chemicals are all known to be neurotoxic and provoke changes in heme metabolism also known to induce neurotoxicity. The objective of this work was to propose a multi-biomarker (BM) methodology to screen subjects exposed to the mixture of Pb, As and Mn and assess the severity of their exposure/effects, in an individual basis. The urinary levels of the metals, dela-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) and porphyrins were determined in Portuguese miners and in a control group. The combination of Pb and As urinary levels had the highest capability to identify subjects occupationally exposed to this mixture in mines, as evaluated through Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) (A = 98.2%; p < 0.05), allowing that 94.2% of 86 studied subjects were properly identified and the generation of an equation indicating the odd of a subject be considered as exposed to the metal mixture. The combination of urinary ALA and porphyrins revealed to be best one to be applied in the assessment of subjects with high, intermediate, and low magnitudes of exposure/effects, with 95.7% of 46 miners classified correctly according to their severity sub-group and allowing to generate equations, which can be applied in new subjects. The proposed methodology showed a satisfactory performance, evaluating in an integrated manner the magnitude of exposure/effects of the exposed workers, may contributing to improve the control of their health.

PubMed ID: 34437931 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Aminolevulinic Acid/urine; Arsenic/adverse effects*; Arsenic/urine; Biological Monitoring*; Environmental Biomarkers*; Environmental Pollutants/adverse effects*; Environmental Pollutants/urine; Humans; Lead/adverse effects*; Lead/urine; Manganese/adverse effects*; Manganese/urine; Mining; Occupational Exposure/adverse effects*; Occupational Health; Porphyrins/urine; Predictive Value of Tests; Risk Assessment; Urinalysis

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Last Reviewed: October 07, 2024