Biotinidase Activity Inhibition as a Biomarker of Effect to Mercury: Evidence from Amazonian Riverside Populations, In Vitro Assays, and In Silico Analyses
José Luiz Martins do Nascimento, Gabriela de Paula Arrifano, Robson Nascimento Viana, Marcus Augusto-Oliveira, Amanda Lopes-Araújo, Leticia Santos-Sacramento, Victor Cezar Gomes Melo, Rafaela Silva de Sousa, Carlos Gabriel da Silva de Souza, Chubert Bernardo Castro de Sena, Luiz Carlos Santana da Si · 2026
Read Biotinidase Activity Inhibition as a Biomarker of Effect to Mercury: Evidence from Amazonian Riverside Populations, In Vitro Assays, and In Silico Analyses by José Luiz Martins do Nascimento, Gabriela de Paula Arrifano, Robson Nascimento Viana, Marcus Augusto-Oliveira, Amanda Lopes-Araújo, Leticia Santos-Sacramento, Victor Cezar Gomes Melo, Rafaela Silva de Sousa, Carlos Gabriel da Silva de Souza, Chubert Bernardo Castro de Sena, Luiz Carlos Santana da Si (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13295054.txt.
Description
José Luiz Martins do Nascimento and colleagues propose an enzyme's slowdown as a warning sign of mercury poisoning, in a 2026 study from the Amazon. Riverside communities there eat fish carrying mercury, a metal that attacks the developing brain. The candidate marker is biotinidase, an enzyme that recycles a B vitamin fragment, and the team checked it three ways: computer docking, lab assays, and blood from exposed and unexposed residents.
Blood from mercury-exposed people showed lower biotinidase activity, while other metals tested in the lab left the enzyme alone, pointing to a specific effect. Docking simulations showed methylmercury gripping the enzyme's active site through sulfur and selenium atoms, with a cysteine residue the likely anchor. A cheap blood test for the enzyme, the authors argue, could flag intoxication early in remote regions where exposure monitoring is scarce.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | José Luiz Martins do Nascimento, Gabriela de Paula Arrifano, Robson Nascimento Viana, Marcus Augusto-Oliveira, Amanda Lopes-Araújo, Leticia Santos-Sacramento, Victor Cezar Gomes Melo, Rafaela Silva de Sousa, Carlos Gabriel da Silva de Souza, Chubert Bernardo Castro de Sena, Luiz Carlos Santana da Si |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 36 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |