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Delta-Aminolevulinic Acid Dehydratase Enzyme Activity and Susceptibility to Lead Toxicity in Uganda’s Urban Children

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Submitted:

21 December 2021

Posted:

22 December 2021

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Abstract
Rapid industrialization, urbanization, and population explosion in sub-Saharan Africa escalate environmental Lead levels with subsequent elevation of blood Lead levels in children. Nutrition status, age, and genetics govern one’s susceptibility to Lead toxicity. This study expounded this susceptibility by relating blood Lead levels, d-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase enzyme activity (ALAD), and genetic variations of proteins that code for ALAD enzyme in urban children of Uganda. Spectrophotometric analysis for blood Lead (BL), hemoglobin levels, and determination d-levels aminolevulinic acid dehydratase enzyme activity of the blood samples from 198 children were performed prior to a polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length digestion for ALAD polymorphism was done. Up to 99.5% of samples coded for the ALAD1 allele whereas 0.05% coded for ALAD2. Genotypes ALAD2-2 members had elevated BLL (mean 14.1 µg/dL) and reduced ALAD enzyme activity compared to others. This, therefore, implies that the majority of children hoard BL which may affect them later in life.
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Subject: Biology and Life Sciences  -   Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
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