Elements that are of vital necessity for the life cycle and required in small quantity at roughly 0.00001% to 0.01% of the body weight are called essential trace elements. They include Fe, Zn, Cu, Co, Se, Cr, I, Mo, F, V, Ni, and Mn. The human body maintains a tight metabolic cycle of these essential elements and any disruption in their homeostasis is often accompanied by adverse health consequences. The dose-response relationships for most of these elements take the V-shaped form, implying that the homeostasis may be disturbed either by suboptimal (deficient or excess) intake of specific trace elements (such as Fe and Zn) or by excessive exposure to them. As a result, the pathological effect of each of these elements can be enigmatic, sustaining health at optimal conditions or impairing health above or below critical thresholds. Worldwide, especially in the developing countries, the epidemic of endemic diseases including malaria, diarrhea, and upper respiratory tract infections often occurs with the high prevalence rates of essential trace element deficiencies. Therefore, understanding the role of these essential trace elements in human health and diseases is necessary to protect the public’s health.
The emerging One Health perspective linking public health with animal and environmental health will be the link in sourcing manuscripts for the special issue. Cutting edge areas of research and practice in this field that will be addressed include optimal dosages of essential elements that can facilitate the development, reproduction, and health of human populations, but suboptimal dosages at which malnutrition/immunotoxicity, pathogenesis, and diseases may occur. The dose-response relationship of essential trace elements and the balance in their bioavailable quantities needs to be further unraveled especially considering the change of the human lifestyles and worrying nutrition levels in staple foods. Besides, since essential trace elements and other nutrients are obtained mostly from rock-soil-food chain, it is important to explore the mineral nutrition at regional scale and explore the interaction between essential trace elements, companying toxic (e.g., Al, Cd, Pb, Hg and As) trace elements, and microbiota in the environment and human populations. Some of the trace elements control important biological processes in carcinogenesis such as facilitating redox reactions and influencing biochemical pathways, also representing an area of active research.
This Research Topic aims to invite contributions of articles for publication, focusing on
(1) How essential trace elements at optimal dosages facilitate the nutritional immunity and thus health of humans;
(2) Relationships between trace element intake and pathogenesis of human diseases;
(3) Consequences of multiple interactions between essential trace elements, toxic trace elements (e.g., Al, Cd, Pb, Hg and As), antibiotic drugs, microbiota, and the environment on public health and diseases through exposomics and environment-wide association studies;
(4) Exploration of the nexus of human-microbe-trace element interactions with the tools of omics including metallomics, proteomics and genomics; and
(5) Effective measures and therapies of maintaining good mineral nutrition from the One Health perspective by linking human-animal-environment.
Elements that are of vital necessity for the life cycle and required in small quantity at roughly 0.00001% to 0.01% of the body weight are called essential trace elements. They include Fe, Zn, Cu, Co, Se, Cr, I, Mo, F, V, Ni, and Mn. The human body maintains a tight metabolic cycle of these essential elements and any disruption in their homeostasis is often accompanied by adverse health consequences. The dose-response relationships for most of these elements take the V-shaped form, implying that the homeostasis may be disturbed either by suboptimal (deficient or excess) intake of specific trace elements (such as Fe and Zn) or by excessive exposure to them. As a result, the pathological effect of each of these elements can be enigmatic, sustaining health at optimal conditions or impairing health above or below critical thresholds. Worldwide, especially in the developing countries, the epidemic of endemic diseases including malaria, diarrhea, and upper respiratory tract infections often occurs with the high prevalence rates of essential trace element deficiencies. Therefore, understanding the role of these essential trace elements in human health and diseases is necessary to protect the public’s health.
The emerging One Health perspective linking public health with animal and environmental health will be the link in sourcing manuscripts for the special issue. Cutting edge areas of research and practice in this field that will be addressed include optimal dosages of essential elements that can facilitate the development, reproduction, and health of human populations, but suboptimal dosages at which malnutrition/immunotoxicity, pathogenesis, and diseases may occur. The dose-response relationship of essential trace elements and the balance in their bioavailable quantities needs to be further unraveled especially considering the change of the human lifestyles and worrying nutrition levels in staple foods. Besides, since essential trace elements and other nutrients are obtained mostly from rock-soil-food chain, it is important to explore the mineral nutrition at regional scale and explore the interaction between essential trace elements, companying toxic (e.g., Al, Cd, Pb, Hg and As) trace elements, and microbiota in the environment and human populations. Some of the trace elements control important biological processes in carcinogenesis such as facilitating redox reactions and influencing biochemical pathways, also representing an area of active research.
This Research Topic aims to invite contributions of articles for publication, focusing on
(1) How essential trace elements at optimal dosages facilitate the nutritional immunity and thus health of humans;
(2) Relationships between trace element intake and pathogenesis of human diseases;
(3) Consequences of multiple interactions between essential trace elements, toxic trace elements (e.g., Al, Cd, Pb, Hg and As), antibiotic drugs, microbiota, and the environment on public health and diseases through exposomics and environment-wide association studies;
(4) Exploration of the nexus of human-microbe-trace element interactions with the tools of omics including metallomics, proteomics and genomics; and
(5) Effective measures and therapies of maintaining good mineral nutrition from the One Health perspective by linking human-animal-environment.
