Common side effects include high blood pressure, pain at the site of the injection, vomiting, and fever.[3] It is not recommended for people with peanut allergies as it is typically formulated as a suspension in peanut oil.[3] It is unclear if use in pregnancy is safe for the baby.[3] Dimercaprol is a chelator and works by binding with heavy metals.[3] It has a very pungent odor.
Dimercaprol has long been the mainstay of chelation therapy for lead or arsenic poisoning,[7] and it is an essential drug.[6] It is also used as an antidote to the organometallic chemical weapon Lewisite. Nonetheless, because it can have serious adverse effects, researchers have also pursued development of less toxic analogues,[7] such as succimer.
Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder in which copper builds up inside the liver and other tissues. Dimercaprol is a copper chelating agent that has been approved by the FDA to treat Wilson's disease.[8]
Arsenic and some other heavy metals act by chelating with adjacent thiol residues on metabolic enzymes, creating a chelate complex that inhibits the affected enzyme's activity.[10] Dimercaprol competes with the thiol groups for binding the metal ion, which is then excreted in the urine.[citation needed]
Dimercaprol has been found to form stable chelates in vivo with many other metals including inorganic mercury, antimony, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, gold, and nickel. However, it is not necessarily the treatment of choice for toxicity to these metals. Dimercaprol has been used as an adjunct in the treatment of the acute encephalopathy of lead toxicity. It is a potentially toxic drug, and its use may be accompanied by multiple side effects. Although treatment with dimercaprol will increase the urinary excretion of cadmium, use in case of cadmium toxicity is to be avoided as the drug-cadmium complex is rather nephrotoxic. It does, however, remove inorganic mercury from the kidneys; Dimercaprol should not be used to treat organomercury poisoning. Dimercaprol also enhances the toxicity of selenium and tellurium, so it is not to be used to remove these elements from the body.[citation needed]
12World Health Organization (2019). World Health Organization model list of essential medicines: 21st list 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization. hdl:10665/325771. WHO/MVP/EMP/IAU/2019.06. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.
