An appraisal of the field of metallomics and the roles of metal ions in biochemistry and cell signaling

Wolfgang Maret

doi:10.3390/app112210846

An appraisal of the field of metallomics and the roles of metal ions in biochemistry and cell signaling

Wolfgang Maret^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Nutritional Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	10846
Journal	Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
Volume	11
Issue number	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/app112210846
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 17 Nov 2021

Keywords

Bioinorganic chemistry
Chemical elements
Health outcomes
Homeostatic control
Metal ion signaling
Metallomics

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10.3390/app112210846

Cite this

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title = "An appraisal of the field of metallomics and the roles of metal ions in biochemistry and cell signaling",

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.",

keywords = "Bioinorganic chemistry, Chemical elements, Health outcomes, Homeostatic control, Metal ion signaling, Metallomics",

author = "Wolfgang Maret",

note = "Funding Information: The research linked to this review was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Multi-User Equip-ment Grant ?The London Metallomics Facility? (202902/Z/16/Z).Acknowledgments: I thank my colleagues at King?s College London, Robert Hider and Phil Blower, Surjit K. S. Srai (University College London) and Ian Mudway (Imperial College London), who are all part of the London Metallomics Consortium (LMC), for discussions that led to this manuscript. The LMC comprises ?a critical mass? of academic investigators from several London Universities (King?s College (KCL), University College (UCL), Queen Mary University (QMU), Imperial College (IC)) with various backgrounds and a common interest in metallomics. It also includes Sophie Moore (KCL), David Green (IC), Maciej Garbowski (UCL), Guy Rutter (IC). John Viles and Claudio Raimondi (QMU). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

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month = nov,

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doi = "10.3390/app112210846",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

journal = "Applied Sciences (Switzerland)",

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T1 - An appraisal of the field of metallomics and the roles of metal ions in biochemistry and cell signaling

AU - Maret, Wolfgang

N1 - Funding Information: The research linked to this review was funded by the Wellcome Trust, Multi-User Equip-ment Grant ?The London Metallomics Facility? (202902/Z/16/Z).Acknowledgments: I thank my colleagues at King?s College London, Robert Hider and Phil Blower, Surjit K. S. Srai (University College London) and Ian Mudway (Imperial College London), who are all part of the London Metallomics Consortium (LMC), for discussions that led to this manuscript. The LMC comprises ?a critical mass? of academic investigators from several London Universities (King?s College (KCL), University College (UCL), Queen Mary University (QMU), Imperial College (IC)) with various backgrounds and a common interest in metallomics. It also includes Sophie Moore (KCL), David Green (IC), Maciej Garbowski (UCL), Guy Rutter (IC). John Viles and Claudio Raimondi (QMU). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021/11/17

Y1 - 2021/11/17

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Bioinorganic chemistry

KW - Chemical elements

KW - Health outcomes

KW - Homeostatic control

KW - Metal ion signaling

KW - Metallomics

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U2 - 10.3390/app112210846

DO - 10.3390/app112210846

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85119627623

SN - 2076-3417

VL - 11

JO - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)

JF - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)

IS - 22

M1 - 10846

ER -

An appraisal of the field of metallomics and the roles of metal ions in biochemistry and cell signaling

Abstract

Keywords

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