Posts Tagged "disease"

Antioxidants and treatment of diseases

What are antioxidants?

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals, which start chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions by being oxidized themselves.

As oxidative stress might be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is unknown whether oxidative stress is the cause or the consequence of disease. Antioxidants are also widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease. Although some studies have suggested antioxidant supplements have health benefits, other large clinical trials did not detect any benefit for the formulations tested, and excess supplementation may be harmful. In addition to these uses in medicine, antioxidants have many industrial uses, such as preservatives in food and cosmetics and preventing the degradation of rubber and gasoline.

Cancer is a Genetic Disease

The role of somatic mutations in cancer was debated for many years. Witkowski (1990) puts that historical debate in context with a comprehensive time line of developments in cancer research interleaved with developments in basic genetics and molecular biology.

Boveri (1914, 1929) often gets credit for the first comprehensive theory of somatic genetic changes in cancer progression (Wunderlich 2002). Tyzzer (1916) used the term “somatic mutation” to describe events in cancer progression. In the 1950s, Armitage and Doll (1954, 1957) cautiously described the stages of multistage progression as possibly resulting from somatic mutations but perhaps arising from other causes. Burdette (1955), in a comprehensive review of the role of genetic mutations in carcinogenesis, tended to oppose the central role of mutations in progression. In (1969), Fould’s extensive summary of cancer progression also downplayed the role of mutation.