科研之友
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摘要
Natural and synthetic antioxidants are widely used in modern medicine. Some of them proved to be efficient geroprotectors, i.e., they extend the life span of laboratory animals when added to food or drinking water on a regular basis. In vitro, antioxidants inhibit free-radical chain oxidation reactions, resulting in oxidation of fatty acids, edible fats, etc. However, their efficiency as scavengers of oxygen free radicals in cells and tissues is negligible as compared with natural antioxidant enzymes. In vivo, antioxidants decrease the concentration of free radicals but they are not only and not so much direct inhibitors of free radical processes as physiologically active compounds that prevent the formation of oxygen radicals and free radical oxidation. For example, synthetic antioxidant dibunol (BHT) prevents the generation of the O(2) (-) radical as a by-product of mitochondrial electron transport, while flavonoids exert a preventive antioxidant action by inducing the expression of the antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase and catalase. The endocrine system and regulatory transcription and translation factors play a significant role in the antioxidant therapy. Therefore, elucidating the molecular mechanisms of the "antioxidant prophylaxis" is a task of the molecular systems biology.
- 出版日期2010-1
