Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems

The radical scavenging antioxidants play an essential role in the maintenance of health and prevention of diseases, and a thorough understanding of the action and capacity of antioxidants is critically important. Despite the assumption that antioxidants must exert beneficial effects against oxidativ...

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Main Author: Etsuo Niki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2014-06-01
Series:Biomedical Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.biomedj.org/article.asp?issn=2319-4170;year=2014;volume=37;issue=3;spage=106;epage=111;aulast=Niki
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author Etsuo Niki
author_facet Etsuo Niki
author_sort Etsuo Niki
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description The radical scavenging antioxidants play an essential role in the maintenance of health and prevention of diseases, and a thorough understanding of the action and capacity of antioxidants is critically important. Despite the assumption that antioxidants must exert beneficial effects against oxidative stress, many large-scale randomized controlled trials gave inconsistent and disappointing results on the prevention of chronic diseases. It is now generally accepted that there is no evidence to support the use of non-discriminative antioxidant supplements for prevention of diseases. On the other hand, recent data show that antioxidants may be effective in the prevention and/or treatment of diseases when the right antioxidant is given to the right subject at the right time for the right duration. Now it is accepted that reactive oxygen species (ROS) act as physiologically important signaling messengers as well as deleterious agents. The signaling ROS are produced in a subtly regulated manner, while many deleterious ROS are produced and react randomly. Free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation products which, in contrast to enzymatic oxidation products, are produced by non-specific mechanisms cause oxidative damage, but may also induce adaptive response to enhance the expression of antioxidant enzymes and compounds. This has raised a question if removal of too many ROS by supplementation of antioxidants may upset the cell signaling pathways and actually increase the risk of chronic diseases. However, it is unlikely that antioxidants impair physiologically essential signaling pathways.
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spelling doaj.art-6c22d0f6edfd449884d0ad8d96667e2b2022-12-22T04:10:15ZengElsevierBiomedical Journal2319-41702320-28902014-06-0137310611110.4103/2319-4170.128727Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems Etsuo Niki0Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto; National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Health Research Institute, Osaka, JapanThe radical scavenging antioxidants play an essential role in the maintenance of health and prevention of diseases, and a thorough understanding of the action and capacity of antioxidants is critically important. Despite the assumption that antioxidants must exert beneficial effects against oxidative stress, many large-scale randomized controlled trials gave inconsistent and disappointing results on the prevention of chronic diseases. It is now generally accepted that there is no evidence to support the use of non-discriminative antioxidant supplements for prevention of diseases. On the other hand, recent data show that antioxidants may be effective in the prevention and/or treatment of diseases when the right antioxidant is given to the right subject at the right time for the right duration. Now it is accepted that reactive oxygen species (ROS) act as physiologically important signaling messengers as well as deleterious agents. The signaling ROS are produced in a subtly regulated manner, while many deleterious ROS are produced and react randomly. Free radical-mediated lipid peroxidation products which, in contrast to enzymatic oxidation products, are produced by non-specific mechanisms cause oxidative damage, but may also induce adaptive response to enhance the expression of antioxidant enzymes and compounds. This has raised a question if removal of too many ROS by supplementation of antioxidants may upset the cell signaling pathways and actually increase the risk of chronic diseases. However, it is unlikely that antioxidants impair physiologically essential signaling pathways.http://www.biomedj.org/article.asp?issn=2319-4170;year=2014;volume=37;issue=3;spage=106;epage=111;aulast=Nikiantioxidantfree radicallipid peroxidationoxidative stressvitamin E
spellingShingle Etsuo Niki
Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
Biomedical Journal
antioxidant
free radical
lipid peroxidation
oxidative stress
vitamin E
title Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
title_full Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
title_fullStr Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
title_full_unstemmed Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
title_short Antioxidants: Basic principles, emerging concepts, and problems
title_sort antioxidants basic principles emerging concepts and problems
topic antioxidant
free radical
lipid peroxidation
oxidative stress
vitamin E
url http://www.biomedj.org/article.asp?issn=2319-4170;year=2014;volume=37;issue=3;spage=106;epage=111;aulast=Niki
work_keys_str_mv AT etsuoniki antioxidantsbasicprinciplesemergingconceptsandproblems