The village of 'mutants' can eat poisonous drama

Arsenic is one of the most toxic substances ever known by humans and has been used to poison the kings, politicians and even racing horses. However, scientists found that a small group of people living in remote Andes, northwestern Argentina, have the ability to be resistant to this toxic poison.

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Arsenic poisoning caused by contaminated water or food is thought to have harmed more than 137 million people worldwide.

Even low levels of arsenic poisoning can damage our lungs, heart, kidneys and liver, leading to the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. In higher doses, arsenic can damage the immune system, triggering bleeding, seizures and eventually coma and death.

However, those living in a sparsely populated area around the village of San Antonio de los Cobres are located high in the Andes mountains in Argentina's Puna region, seemingly growing in a way to cope. with arsenic more efficiently.

For nearly 11,000 years, indigenous inhabitants, descendants of the Atacameños, drank arsenic poisoned water.

Dr. Karin Broberg, an environmental medicine researcher at Lunds University (Sweden) and colleagues discovered, about 7,000 - 10,000 years ago, residents in the region experienced some genetic changes, help bring better arsenic resistance . As a result, they can absorb arsenic 20 times higher than the threshold now considered safe.

Dr Broberg said: "Arsenic is located in the volcanic rock floor and some places have a higher concentration. Arsenic is then released into streams that provide drinking water to the people. However, people living in this area are exposed to relatively high arsenic and have less effective, less toxic chemicals. "

According to Molecular Biology and Evolution, Dr. Broberg and colleagues studied the genome of 124 native women, living around the village of San Antonio de los Cobres. They also tested their ability to metabolize arsenic by examining the amount of non-metallic elements in their urine.

The team identified a number of key mutations in the genes of indigenous people, seemingly giving them the ability to withstand high levels of arsenic exposure. In particular, a gene called AS3MT , thought to be involved in arsenic transformation , appears to be much higher in the San Antonio de los Cobres than in the populations living in Columbia and Peru.

Other groups of people in the world were also found to have this variant of the AS3MT gene, with the highest frequency in the Peruvian, American and Vietnamese populations.

The team stressed that this is an example of human adaptation to environmental toxins - something that is often observed in animals, such as mice.

According to experts, arsenic poisoning can occur naturally or as a result of industrial activities such as gold digging.

Under Elizabeth First, arsenic from arsenic was used to make facial makeup for women. A-sen was also used to create toxic lewisite gas during World War I, causing the victims to burn before dying.

Arsenic has also been blamed for the madness of King George III and the famous French general Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 2008, Chinese authorities also confirmed that King Quang Tu (1871 - 1908) or Thanh Duc Tong, the predecessor of the last emperor of the country, was poisoned with a heavy dose of arsenic.

In addition, Iraq's King Faisal I was found to have symptoms of arsenic poisoning while in Switzerland in 1993. And the leader of the South American independence movement Simon Bolivar was thought to have lost his life due to poisoning. chronic arsenic.

Australia's most successful Phar Lap race horse has also been found dead after being poisoned with a heavy dose of arsenic.