Heavy-metal toxicity imposes a potential worldwide threat to the environment and humans. Cadmium, mercury, lead, and arsenic are nonessential toxic heavy metals that are most frequently involved in environmental and health hazards. Conventional chelating agents are unsuitable for subchronic and chronic heavy-metal toxicities. Scientific literature reveals that Spirulina (Arthrospira), a photosynthetic filamentous cyanobacterium that is generally known as blue-green algae, alleviates experimentally induced heavy-metal toxicity. The present review attempts to summarize such studies regarding cadmium, mercury, lead, and arsenic toxicity. A total of 58 preclinical studies demonstrate the alleviative effect of Spirulina against experimental arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury toxicities. Five clinical studies reported protective effects of Spirulina against arsenic toxicity in humans. Clinical studies against three heavy metals were not found in the literature. The present literature study appears to show that Spirulina possesses promising heavy-metal toxicity-ameliorative effects that are mainly attributed to its intrinsic antioxidant activity.

中文翻译：

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螺旋藻（Arthrospira）在减轻重金属毒性中的作用：评估。

重金属毒性对环境和人类构成了潜在的全球性威胁。镉，汞，铅和砷是非必需的有毒重金属，最常见于环境和健康危害。常规的螯合剂不适用于亚慢性和慢性重金属毒性。科学文献表明，螺旋藻（Arthrospira）是一种光合性丝状蓝细菌，通常被称为蓝绿藻，可减轻实验性重金属毒性。本综述试图总结有关镉，汞，铅和砷毒性的研究。共有58项临床前研究证明了螺旋藻的缓解作用对抗实验性砷，镉，铅和汞的毒性。五项临床研究报告了螺旋藻对人体砷毒性的保护作用。文献中未发现针对三种重金属的临床研究。目前的文献研究似乎表明螺旋藻具有可观的重金属毒性改善作用，这主要归因于其固有的抗氧化活性。