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Chemistry of Chelation: Chelating Agent Antagonists for Toxic Metals

  • Chapter
Toxicology of Metals

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 115))

Abstract

The chemistry of chelation is involved in some very important aspects of the toxicology of metals. The first is that toxic metals exert many of their adverse biological effects by forming metal complexes with enzymes, DNA, or other molecules found within cells. Such metal chelate complexes have properties which differ in some important respects from the enzyme or DNA that they contain. This has the result that metal binding can inactivate enzymes. We also find that such chelate complexes are probably responsible for the carcinogenicity of certain chromium compounds which react with DNA. Another quite different aspect is the use of exogenous chelating agents as drugs in order to remove toxic metals from the sites to which they are bound in vivo.

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  1. M. M. Jones
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of Western Ontario, N6A 5C1, Ontario, Canada

    Robert A. Goyer M.D. (Professor Emeritus) & M. George Cherian Ph.D. (Professor) (Professor Emeritus) &  (Professor)

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Jones, M.M. (1995). Chemistry of Chelation: Chelating Agent Antagonists for Toxic Metals. In: Goyer, R.A., Cherian, M.G. (eds) Toxicology of Metals. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 115. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79162-8_13

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