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. 2020 Nov 23;12:591601. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.591601

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Copyright © 2020 Raposo, Pinto, Moreira, Dias, Fontes Ribeiro, Oriá and Malva.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Mercury (Hg): the road to the CNS: (A) small-scale and artisanal gold mining releases Hg to the environment, contaminating soil, lakes, and rivers; (B) Hg is methylated by bacteria in aquatic sediments converting to its organic form, methylmercury (MeHg); (C) this organic MeHg bioaccumulates in predatory fish, undergoing a process of biomagnification and (D) enters the human organism via contaminated seafood consumption; and (E) in the human blood stream, MeHg binds to β-chain hemoglobin in erythrocytes and forms a complex with the aminoacid cystein (complex similar to methionine, MeHg-S-Cys), which can be transported by L-aminoacid transporter (LAT-1) and easily crosses the BBB. Once in the CNS, MeHg disseminates, intoxicating all cell types and structures.