Vanadium in Biosphere and Its Role in Biological Processes

Abstract

Ultra-trace elements or occasionally beneficial elements (OBE) are the new categories of minerals including vanadium (V). The importance of V is attributed due to its multifaceted biological roles, i.e., glucose and lipid metabolism as an insulin-mimetic, antilipemic and a potent stress alleviating agent in diabetes when vanadium is administered at lower doses. It competes with iron for transferrin (binding site for transportation) and with lactoferrin as it is secreted in milk also. The intracellular enzyme protein tyrosine phosphatase, causing the dephosphorylation at beta subunit of the insulin receptor, is inhibited by vanadium, thus facilitating the uptake of glucose inside the cell but only in the presence of insulin. Vanadium could be useful as a potential immune-stimulating agent and also as an antiinflammatory therapeutic metallodrug targeting various diseases. Physiological state and dose of vanadium compounds hold importance in causing toxicity also. Research has been carried out mostly on laboratory animals but evidence for vanadium importance as a therapeutic agent are available in humans and large animals also. This review examines the potential biochemical and molecular role, possible kinetics and distribution, essentiality, immunity, and toxicity-related study of vanadium in a biological system.

Synthesis, characterization, antioxidant and anti‐diabetic activities of a novel protein–vanadium complex

“…Here, the glucose levels were reduced by the protein–vanadium complex possibly due to the strong inhibitory activities against S. cerevisiae α‐glucosidase , B. stearothermophilus α‐glucosidase and maltase. Similar results were reported in the literature, in which the plasma glucose concentration decreased within 60 min due to the supplementation of vanadium in kids, and the vanadium complexes acted as inhibitors of maltase, sucrase and lactase. In the current study, the protein–vanadium complex displayed the stronger anti‐diabetic activity against S. cerevisiae α‐glucosidase (IC 50 value, 258.53 ± 4.08 μg/ml) and weaker anti‐diabetic activity against B. stearothermophilus α‐glucosidase (IC 50 value, 6.92 ± 0.32 μg/ml) compared with acarbose (3657.93 ± 18.57 and 0.06 ± 0.003 μg/ml).…”

Gadolinium orthovanadate nanoparticles increase survival of old rats

“…Наночастицы, способные проявлять антирадикальные, антиокислительные и мембранопротекторные свойства в условиях in vitro и in vivo могут рассматриваться как перспективные геропротекторы [6][7][8]. В литературе имеются данные об антирадикальных и антиоокислительных свойствах соединений ванадия [9]. Вместе с тем, сведения относительно возрастных особенностей влияния ортованадатных НЧ на организм крайне малочисленны [10], а на выживаемость -отсутствуют.…”

Vanadium in Biological Action: Chemical, Pharmacological Aspects, and Metabolic Implications in Diabetes Mellitus

“…In this context, vanadium is found naturally in horse spleen ferritin at levels of 5 to 10 vanadium atoms per protein, and interestingly, it exhibits a pH dependence with decreasing VO 2+ /protein ratios as the pH increases (e.g., 61%, 36%, and 27% at pH 6, 7, and 8, respectively), using a ratio VO 2+ /protein of 16 [88,93,197]. By using EPR spectroscopy, V +5 and V 4+ species were detected in rats fed under vanadium-rich diets, particularly in the ferritin proteins from the liver, kidney, and spleen [113,115,198]. The EPR experiments indicate that the signals arise from the complex formed in the ferritin's interior between iron and the VO 2+ species.…”

“…Moreover, regarding the binding of vanadium to one of the main carrier plasma proteins, transferrin, there is a significant amount of experimental evidence indicating the binding of the V 5+ ion to the same binding site occupied by the Fe 3+ ion [101,102,[109][110][111][112][113][114]. Structural details indicate that vanadate binds to both, the N-and C-terminal sites as VO 2 + where is coordinated by Tyr, His, and Asp residues.…”

“…Since specific coordination sites like those of transferrin for iron are lacking, albumin form mixed complexes with vanadium giving rise to pharmacologically active species [113,123]. Therefore, some vanadyl species with the sufficiently long lifetime in the bloodstream exhibit a good capacity to lower plasma glucose in diabetic models associated with its binding to human albumin [107].…”