VACCINE

“This review gives an up-to-date account of mercury’s physical and chemical properties
and its interaction with biologically active sites pertinent to transport across the blood-brain barrier ...”
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews • Summer 1990
Mercury neurotoxicity: Mechanisms of blood-brain barrier transport
Michael Aschner *, 1, Judy Lynn Aschner
*Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program
Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA
†Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatal Medicine Albany Medical College
Albany, NY 12208, USA
Abstract
Mercury exists in a wide variety of physical and chemical states, each of which has unique characteristics of target
organ toxicity. The classic symptoms associated with exposure to elemental mercury vapor (Hg0) and methylmercury
(Ch3Hg+; MeHg) involve the central nervous system (CNS), while the kidney is the target organ for
the mono- and divalent salts of mercury (Hg+ and Hg++, respectively). Physical properties and redox potentials
determine the qualitative and quantitative differences in toxicity among inorganic mercury compounds, while the
ability of MeHg to cross the blood-brain barrier accounts for its accumulation in the CNS and a clinical picture
that is dominated by neurological disturbances. This review gives an up-to-date account of mercury’s physical and
chemical properties and its interaction with biologically active sites pertinent to transport across the blood-brain
barrier, a major regulator of the CNS millieu.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763405802179