Copper Radiation Essay

Metals are naturally occurring elements in the Earth's crust, and copper is one of the oldest metals known to civilization. Copper is an essential trace element that is vital to the health of all living things (humans, plants, animals, and microorganisms). In humans, copper is essential to the proper functioning of organs and metabolic processes. Copper is generally acquired through dietary intake of copper rich foods such as animal liver, nuts, and shellfish. (Weiss and Linder, 1985) Dietary copper (Cu2+) is absorbed into the body by intestinal mucosal cells, and delivered to the liver via the portal blood bound to albumin, transcuprein, amino acids, and small peptides (Wirth and Linder, 1985). In hepatic cells, copper is incorporated into ceruloplasmin, which

There is an increasing appreciation of a role for copper in normal brain development and function. Conversely, a deficiency or excess of copper can cause chronic disease in humans. Menkes and Wilson disease are two rare heritable disorders of copper transport that are characterized by copper deficiency and copper overload, respectively. (Kaler, 2011) Changes to copper status are also a common feature of several neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Compromised copper regulation in these disorders potentiates inappropriate interactions with aggregation-prone proteins such as Aβ and α synuclein, respectively, to form neurotoxic copper protein aggregates (Gunn et al., 2012). In the case of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is characterized by brain copper depletion, changes in the distribution of copper has been linked with various aspects of the disease process; protein aggregation, defective protein degradation, oxidative stress, inflammation and mitochondrial