Computational approach to the blood-aluminum problem?

摘要

Aluminum has no known function in biota and, when biologically available, is inimical to life. A key to understanding its potential toxicity in humans is its transport in blood. A consensus of opinion has identified the binding of aluminum by the iron-transport protein transferrin as the preeminent factor in the transport of aluminum in blood, although this idea has emanated from in vitro analysis of isolated blood and has never been tested in vivo. We have highlighted what we believe to be inadequacies of our present understanding of aluminum transport in blood, and we have proposed the application of computational methods to test rigorously what we have coined "the blood-aluminum problem." (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.