Tissue culture studies have shown that arsenic compounds block both IKr and Iks channels and, at the same time, activate IK-ATP channels. Arsenic compounds also disrupt ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits pyruvate dehydrogenase and by competing with phosphate it uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration, and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which might form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure, probably from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis. A post mortem reveals brick red colored mucosa, due to severe hemorrhage. Although arsenic causes toxicity, it can also play a protective role. Mechanism
Arsenite inhibits not only the formation of acetyl-CoA but also the enzyme succinic dehydrogenase. Arsenate can replace phosphate in many reactions. It is able to form Glc-6-arsenate in vitro; therefore it has been argued that hexokinase could be inhibited. (Eventually this may be a mechanism leading to muscle weakness in chronic arsenic poisoning.) In the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase reaction arsenate attacks the enzyme-bound thioester. The formed 1-arseno-3-phosphoglycerate is unstable and hydrolyzes spontaneously. Thus, ATP formation in glycolysis is inhibited while bypassing the phosphoglycerate kinase reaction. (Moreover, the formation of 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate in erythrocytes might be affected, followed by a higher oxygen affinity of hemoglobin and subsequently enhanced cyanosis.) As shown by Gresser (1981), submitochondrial particles synthesize adenosine-5-diphosphate-arsenate from ADP and arsenate in presence of succinate.
Epidemiology
This disease is endemic in Portuguese locations Póvoa de Varzim and Vila do Conde (Caxinas), with more than 1000 affected people, coming from about 500 families, where 70% of the people develop the illness. ll the analysed Portuguese families presented the same haplotype (haplotype I) associated with the Met 30 mutation. In northern Sweden, more specifically  Skellefteå (it is locally called "Skelleftesjukan", the Skellefteå disease), 1.5% of the population has the mutated gene. There are many other populations in the world who exhibit the illness after having developed it independently. References
External links

GeneReviews/NIH/NCBI/UW entry on Familial Transthyretin Amyloidosis