L'affaire Yushchenko ou l'histoire d'un empoisonnement ayant permis de déchiffrer un mécanisme de protection contre un célèbre toxique

Mr Viktor Yushchenko, candidate for the Ukrainian presidential elections, was severely intoxicated by dioxin in September 2004. Based on the analysis of dioxin distribution and elimination as well as using a transcriptomic and immunostaining approach, a Swiss team was able to significantly clarify the mechanism of dioxin-induced injuries in humans. Dioxin induces cytochrome P450 1A1 coding genes that are necessary for its metabolism. Chloracne, recently suggested to be called MADISH for “metabolizing acquired dioxin-induced skin hamartomas”, represents one mean developed by the human body to stock and metabolize dioxin in the skin in order to limit its systemic toxicity.