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Autistic children often suffer from zinc and magnesium deficiencies, says a new research published in Scientific Reports.

Manganese interaction with prions

Hiroshi Yasuda and colleagues from the Health Science Laboratory of  Tokyo, Japan, determined the concentration of 26 trace elements in scalp and hair samples of 1967 children with autistic disorders and discovered that many of these children suffered from mineral deficiency. Especially young children between 0 and 3 years old suffered from zinc- and magnesium loss or displayed high accumulation of toxic metals including aluminium, cadmium and lead.

The role of iron, copper and zinc in Alzheimer's disease

Autistic disorders are a group of neural development disorders characterised by impairments in social interaction, communication and by the presence of repetitive behaviours. Although some of the genes related to autism have been reported and many of the cases seem to be heritable, the genetic determinants that cause the disease remain unclear.

The interesting results showed in this study suggest that zinc and magnesium deficiency may be an important environmental factor in the development of autistic disorders. Thus the use of a metallomics analysis for early screening and prevention of neural development disorders such as autism seems a promising approach, say the authors.

Initial evidence of autism linked to lack of zinc was observed by the same group in 2011, but this is in fact the first study showing a comprehensive metallomics analysis in patients.

As for autistic disorders, metals play a role in a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases. Take a look at the Metallomics papers listed below and discover all about metals in human diseases. These papers will be free to read until April 19^th.

Metal imaging in neurodegenerative diseases
Megan W. Bourassa and Lisa M. Miller
Metallomics, 2012,4, 721-738
DOI: 10.1039/C2MT20052J

Role of metal dyshomeostasis in Alzheimer’s disease
David J. Bonda ,  Hyoung-gon Lee ,  Jeffrey A. Blair ,  Xiongwei Zhu ,  George Perry and Mark A. Smith
Metallomics, 2011,3, 267-270
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00074D

Prions and manganese: A maddening beast
David R. Brown
Metallomics, 2011,3, 229-238
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00047G

Efflux function, tissue-specific expression and intracellular trafficking of the Zn transporter ZnT10 indicate roles in adult Zn homeostasis
Helen J. Bosomworth ,  Jared K. Thornton ,  Lisa J. Coneyworth ,  Dianne Ford and Ruth A. Valentine
Metallomics, 2012,4, 771-779
DOI: 10.1039/C2MT20088K

The preparations for the upcoming 4th International Symposium on Metallomics (8th-11th July 2013, Oviedo, Spain) are now in full flow! Due to the Easter break, the deadline for abstract submission has been extended to 15th April 2013.

Further important dates:

1st April 2013 – Deadline for applications to students’ grants

15th April 2013 – Deadline for abstract submissions

1st May 2013 – Notification to authors about abstract acceptance

15th May 2013 – Deadline for early registration

Don’t postpone your accommodation booking! There is also the opportunity for students to get accommodation at affordable prices. Please contact the conference secretary for further details. Other important information can be found on the webpage of the conference.

Prion proteins may be the cause of cell death in Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD), researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have reported.

Accumulation of oxidised iron in the brain is often linked to progression of neurodegenerative disases such as CJD, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Prions are misfolded forms of PrPC, a protein found in all human tissues. The normal function of PrPC  is to convert the toxic oxidised form of iron into a non-toxic form that can be easily assimilated and used by the cells. When PrPC proteins misfold in the brain and create insoluble aggregates, they lose their function and cause neurotoxicity.

In their study, the researchers observed that mice lacking the PrPC protein were also deficient of iron, and supplementation of iron in the diet of mice restored their normal iron levels in the body. Because the lack of PrPC impairs iron uptake and storage, the accumulation and aggregation of non-functional prion proteins in the brain would cause unbalanced iron metabolism and create a toxic environment.

According to this study, targeting the human prion protein in the brain may open to new strategies for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including CJD, for which no cure yet exists.

The study was reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease earlier this month.

Metal imaging in neurodegenartive diseases

Do you want to know more about iron?

Take a look the Metallomics papers listed below. They will be free for you to enjoy until April 12^th.

Iron-responsive bacterial small RNAs: variations on a theme
Amanda G. Oglesby-Sherrouse and Erin R. Murphy
Metallomics, 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3MT20224K

Metal imaging in neurodegenerative diseases
Megan W. Bourassa and Lisa M. Miller
Metallomics, 2012,4, 721-738
DOI: 10.1039/C2MT20052J

Disorders associated with systemic or local iron overload: from pathophysiology to clinical practice
Giada Sebastiani and Kostas Pantopoulos
Metallomics, 2011,3, 971-986
DOI: 10.1039/C1MT00082A

Genes for iron metabolism influence circadian rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster
Konstantinos Mandilaras and Fanis Missirlis
Metallomics, 2012,4, 928-936
DOI: 10.1039/C2MT20065A

We are excited to announce a recently published book with the RSC from Metallomics Advisory Board member Bob Williams, University of Oxford, UK.

Evolution’s Destiny : Co-evolving Chemistry of the Environment and Life

by Robert J. P. Williams & Ros Rickaby

Traditionally, evolution has been viewed solely from a biological fitness perspective, with genes determining how life takes shape in response to the environment. Furthermore, until the arrival of man, life had little or no apparent influence on the environment.

Recent advances in our understanding of the Earth’s geochemistry and knowledge of the geological record almost from the origin of the Earth have lead to the consideration that, beyond the “survival of the fittest” species, evolution has been occurring on larger, chemical, scale. This book demonstrates that biology and geochemistry have continually influenced each other in the co-evolution of the Earth and all life.

In particular there were several essential controls over the bulk inorganic elements in cells which had major consequences later in evolution. The main driving change during evolution was that oxygen released from cells led to novel inorganic elements in the environment. The new elements then interacted with the cells and ultimately the cells came to utilise them in stages. The large scale changes of environmental chemicals ceased about 400 million years ago. At that time the chemical conditions of the environment for present-day life existed. Subsequent changes of organisms were by random “Darwinian” processes and led eventually to the development of a refined brain in man. Man has then been able to restart chemical and physical changes in the environment. The outcome of this remains unknown, but history implies that changes in living organisms must result from these novel chemical experiments with the environment.

For more information about the publication, please click here. Or visit the RSC Books website.

You may also like to read some recent papers in Metallomics by Bob Williams on a similar topic, they will be free to access until the end of October;

Copper proteomes, phylogenetics and evolution
Leonardo Decaria, Ivano Bertini and Robert J. P. Williams
Metallomics, 2011, 3, 56-60
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00045K

Zinc proteomes, phylogenetics and evolution
Leonardo Decaria, Ivano Bertini and Robert J. P. Williams
Metallomics, 2010, 2, 706-709
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00024H

If your institution has upgraded to the RSC Gold subscription, did you realize this means that you now have access to all of the RSC journal, database and magazine content? This means you now have access to Metallomics! Take a look below at some of the highly cited content we have published recently. These papers will be free to access and read until October 22nd, so do take a look. We hope that you will consider submitting your next paper to Metallomics.

New RSC Gold subscribers now have access to Metallomics

Interactions of Zn(II) and Cu(II) ions with Alzheimer’s amyloid-beta peptide. Metal ion binding, contribution to fibrillization and toxicity
Vello Tõugu, Ann Tiiman and Peep Palumaa
Metallomics, 2011, 3, 250-261
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00073F

Trace metal imaging with high spatial resolution: Applications in biomedicine
Zhenyu Qin, Joseph A. Caruso, Barry Lai, Andreas Matusch and J. Sabine Becker
Metallomics, 2011, 3, 28-37
DOI: 10.1039/C0MT00048E

Gold compounds as therapeutic agents for human diseases
Susan J. Berners-Price and Aleksandra Filipovska
Metallomics, 2011, 3, 863-873
DOI: 10.1039/C1MT00062D

DNA, protein binding, cytotoxicity, cellular uptake and antibacterial activities of new palladium(II) complexes of thiosemicarbazone ligands: effects of substitution on biological activity
P. Kalaivani, R. Prabhakaran, F. Dallemer, P. Poornima, E. Vaishnavi, E. Ramachandran, V. Vijaya Padma, R. Renganathan and K. Natarajan
Metallomics, 2012, 4, 101-113
DOI: 10.1039/C1MT00144B

Biotransformation of BMOV in the presence of blood serum proteins
Daniele Sanna, Linda Bíró, Péter Buglyó, Giovanni Micera and Eugenio Garribba
Metallomics, 2012, 4, 33-36
DOI: 10.1039/C1MT00161B

The distribution profile and oxidation states of biometals in APP transgenic mouse brain: dyshomeostasis with age and as a function of the development of Alzheimer’s disease
Huajian Wang, Meng Wang, Bing Wang, Ming Li, Hanqing Chen, Xiaohan Yu, Yuliang Zhao, Weiyue Feng and Zhifang Chai
Metallomics, 2012, 4, 289-296
DOI: 10.1039/C2MT00104G

Ivano Bertini 1940-2012

It is with sadness that we pass on the news that our Advisory Board member Professor Ivano Bertini of the University of Florence, Italy, passed away on Saturday 7th July.

Ivano was a pioneer in the field of NMR spectroscopy, making important advances in protein NMR spectroscopy, in particular of paramagnetic metalloproteins. We are honoured to have had his support as a Board member, and share our condolences with his family, friends and colleagues.