The Free Radical Theory of O2 Toxicity

Despite the enormous amount of biochemical knowledge that has accumulated over the past one hundred years, we remain generally ignorant concerning the molecular mechanisms associated with the major diseases that still afflict mankind. None of them (with the possible exception of diabetes) are associated with obvious derangement of an important metabolic pathway. One cannot help but wonder if classical biochemical knowledge is deficient in crucial areas. The interpretation of metabolism on an electrochemical basis introduces a new dimension and raises the question of whether disease states may be related to disorders of fundamental electrochemical mechanisms, associated with the living state. 

In this Section we address these difficulties by proposing that the formation of superoxide within energy-transducing membranes, by univalent reduction of O2  

---