Ananda S Prasad
Wayne State University School of Medicine, USA
Title: Discovery and impact of zinc on health: Bio-markers of zinc defi ciency
Biography
Biography: Ananda S Prasad
Abstract
In the Middle East, nearly 50 years ago, we established the essentiality of zinc for human and documented for the fi rst time occurrence of zinc defi ciency in the villages of Iran and Egypt. During the past fi ve decades we have witnessed tremendous advances in both clinical and basic science areas of zinc metabolism. Currently WHO estimates that nearly 2 billion subjects in the developing countries are zinc defi cient and widespread growth retardation, immune dysfunction and cognitive impairment are related to zinc defi ciency.Th erapeutic use of zinc for treatment of acute diarrhea in infants and children in developing countries has saved millions of lives. Zinc is very eff ective in reducing the incidences of blindness in patients with age related macular degeneration (AMD). Zinc is an approved therapy for patients with Wilson’s disease. Zinc administration is eff ective in decreasing the incidences of infection in the elderly, patients with sickle cell disease and head and neck cancer patients. Zinc is a molecular signal for immune and neuronal cells. In our experimental model of human zinc defi ciency we reported that measurement of zinc and ecto 5’ nucleotidase in lymphocytes, are sensitive indicators of zinc defi ciency. Serum active thymulin and generation of Th 1 cytokines, IL-2 and IFN-γ and their mRNAs are most sensitive indicators of acute zinc defi ciency. We have now established a new method of zinc assay in nails and plasma by LIBS (laser induced background spectroscopy) technique which is simple, exportable and cost eff ective and is an excellent indictor of chronic human zinc deficiency.