Reactive oxygen , superoxide

One of the important consequences of neuronal stimulation is increased neuronal aerobic metabolism which produces reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS can oxidize several biomoiecules (carbohydrates, DNA, lipids, and proteins). Thus, even oxygen, which is essential for aerobic life, may be potentially toxic to cells. Addition of one electron to molecular oxygen (O,) generates a free radical [O2)) the superoxide anion. This is converted through activation of an enzyme, superoxide dismurase, to hydrogen peroxide (H-iO,), which is, in turn, the source of the hydroxyl radical (OH). Usually catalase... 

Ito, Y., Hiraishi, H., Razandi, M., Terano, A., Harada, T. and Ivey, K.J. (1992). Role of cellular superoxide dismutase against reactive oxygen metabolite-induced cell dam e in cultured rat hepatocytes. Hepatology 16, 247-254. 

Lipid peroxidation (see Fig. 17.2) is a chain reaction that can be attacked in many ways. The chain reaction can be inhibited by use of radical scavengers (chain termination). Initiation of the chain reaction can be blocked by either inhibiting synthesis. of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or by use of antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), complexes of SOD and catalase. Finally, agents that chelate iron can remove free iron and thus reduce Flaber-Weiss-mediated iron/oxygen injury. 

Results of a more recent series of investigations suggest that lead may cause hypertension in rats by increasing reactive oxygen species, which act as vasoconstrictors, and decreasing nitric oxide, a vasodilator released by the endothelium. The reactive oxygen species may be the hydroxyl radical, and did not appear to be the superoxide anion (Ding et al. 1998). 

The effectors of the mammalian host immune attack against filaria include reactive oxygen intermediates. Filarial nematodes express glutathione peroxidase, thioredoxin peroxidase and superoxide dismutase at their surface - enzymes believed to protect the nematode from this attack (Selkirk et al., 1998). A bacterial catalase gene has been identified that most probably derives from the endosymbiont genome (Henkle-Duhrsen et al., 1998) this enzyme may contribute with other enzymes to the protection of both Wolbachia and its nematode host from oxygen radicals. 

The mitochondrial dysfunctionality seen in manganese neurotoxicity might be related to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (Verity, 1999). Mitochondrial Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is found to be low or absent in tumour cells and may act as a tumour suppressor. It is induced by inflammatory cytokines like TNF, presumably to protect host cells. In a rat model, iron-rich diets were found to decrease MnSOD activity, although a recent study reported that in rat epithelial cell cultures iron supplementation increased MnSOD protein levels and activity, but did not compromise the ability of inflammatory mediators like TNF to further increase the enzyme activity (Kuratko, 1999). 

T. Ohsaka, F. Matsumoto, and K. Tokuda, An electrochemical approach to dismutation of superoxide ion using a biological model system with a hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface, in Frontiers of Reactive Oxygen Species in Biological and Medicine (K. Asaka and T. Yoshikawa, eds), pp. 91—93. Elsevier Science B.V. Oxford (1994). 

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