Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: DrugBank:EXPT00568 (ascorbate)
 23,072 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

It seems that superoxide dismutase plays the key role in protecting aerobes against O2 toxicity, but there is a whole range of ancillary mechanisms: enzymes to remove H2O2 (catalase, peroxidases) and hence to control formation of .OH from O2, which requires H2O2; antioxidants (ascorbate, GSH, alpha-tocopherol, carotenoids), which also react with singlet oxygen and/or .OH and often inhibit lipid peroxidation and last, but not least in animals, glutathione peroxidase, which controls the rate of lipid peroxidation. These mechanisms cope well at normal O2 concentrations but are insufficient at higher levels.
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PMID:Biochemical mechanisms accounting for the toxic action of oxygen on living organisms: the key role of superoxide dismutase. 35 40

The effect of serotonin and malate benzyl hydrazine (inhibitor MAO) on the activity of glutathione peroxidase and intensity of ascorbate-dependent peroxidation of lipids in mitochondria was investigated. Serotonin injected intraperitoneally at a concentration of 20 m/kg increased activity of glutathione peroxidase in liver mitochondria and nonfermented ascorbate-dependent peroxidation of lipids in heart mitochondria. In experiments in vitro serotonin and malate benzyl hydrazine decreased activity of glutathione peroxidase an inhibited nonfermented ascorbate-dependent peroxidation in mitochondria of the heart and liver of rats.
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PMID:[Effect of serotonin and malate benzyl hydrazine on glutathione peroxidase and lipid peroxidation by rat heart and liver mitochondria]. 74 21

Results are presented indicating that, although glutathione peroxidase activity inhibits lipid peroxidation in membranes, it does not appear to do so by reducing membrane lipid peroxides to lipid alcohols, as has been shown by others to be the case for free fatty acid peroxides in solution. Lipid peroxidation was studied in an enzymic system (microsomal NADPH oxidase) and in a non-enzymic system (mitochondria plus ascorbate). A study of the fatty acids in the phospholipids of microsomes and mitochondria demonstrated that detectable amounts of hydroxy fatty acids were not formed in the membranes when the latter were incubated in the presence of the glutathione peroxidase system even under conditions known to have generated significant levels of lipid peroxides in the membrane. Fatty acid analyses of the microsomal and mitochondrial particles indicated that glutathione peroxidase activity inhibited loss of polyunsaturated fatty acids when these organelles were exposed to peroxidizing conditions. If glutathione peroxidase activity were inhibiting the formation of malondialdehyde (a product of lipid peroxidation) by converting peroxide groups to alcohols, the loss of the constitutive polyunsaturated fatty acids in the membrane should not have been appreciably affected by addition of the peroxidase system. The protective effect cannot be due to quenching of an autocatalytic type of lipid peroxidation (at least in the microsomal system) since it has been established that the microsomal enzyme system (NADPH oxidase) catalyzes a continuous attack on microsomal polyunsaturated fatty acyl groups during the reaction and that the peroxidative process is not autocatalytic in nature. It appears, therefore, that glutathione peroxidase activity must exert its effect on this system by preventing free radical attack on the polyunsaturated membrane lipids in the first place. A possible mechanism for the interruption of a free radical attack on the lipids is proposed.
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PMID:Effect of glutathione peroxidase activity on lipid peroxidation in biological membranes. 94 86

Opinions vary as to the mode of action of vitamin E and selenium. Some argue that they act as nonspecific biological antioxidants. Others propose that the functions of the two substances are distinct and that vitamin E acts as a true vitamin in addition to functioning as a lipid-soluble antioxidant. Support for the "Biological Antioxidant Theory" is largely circumstantial. However, lipoperoxides have been detected in adipose tissues of vitamin E-deficient animals, and increased rates of in vitro peroxidation have been demonstrated in homogenates of several tissues of selenium and vitamin E-deficient animals. The basis of the antioxygenic role of selenium in these systems was elucidated by the discovery of Rotruck et al. (1973) that selenium is a component of rat erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase. Further studies in this laboratory have demonstrated the important role of glutathione peroxidase in protection against the vitamin E- and selenium-deficiency disease of chicks, exudative diathesis, which results from increased capillary permeability. Also shown were the activities of both dietary selenium and vitamin E in prevention of ascorbate-induced peroxidation in mitochondrial and microsomal preparations from chick liver. Recent results demonstrate that both selenium and vitamin E are required to protect hepatic mitochondria and microsomes from peroxidative degradation. Dietary requirements of the chick for both nutrients for this function have been determined: approximately 0.06 ppm selenium in the presence of adequate vitamin E; 30-50 IU vitamin E per kg in the presence of adequate selenium.
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PMID:Mechanisms of action of selenium and vitamin E in protection of biological membranes. 110 Apr 38

As oxidative stress has been implicated in the pathogenesis of certain viral diseases we determined antioxidant and prooxidant parameters in lungs and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of mice infected with a lethal dose of influenza A/PR8/34 virus. Viral infection was characterized by massive infiltration of leukocytes, mainly polymorphonuclear leukocytes, into the alveolar space. The total number of BALF cells increased up to 8-fold (day 3 post-infection) and these cells appeared activated as judged by their increased rates of superoxide anion radical (O2-.) generation upon stimulation. Maximal rates of radical generation by BALF cells during the early stages of infection were 15- or 70-fold higher than those of cells from control animals when expressed per cell or total BALF cells, respectively. At the terminal stages of infection the total capacity of BALF cells to release O2-. declined to approximately 35-fold the control values. Infection also resulted in increased in vivo formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) within the lungs at a time that coincided with the maximal capacity of BALF cells to release O2-.. Whereas pulmonary activities of glutathione peroxidase and reductase remained unaltered, levels of ascorbate in the cell-free BALF decreased significantly during the early stages of the infection and then returned to normal levels and above, late in infection. The oxidation state of the dehydroascorbic acid/ascorbate couple increased concomitantly with the decrease in ascorbate concentrations early in infection and remained elevated throughout the infection. As assessed by the prevention of peroxyl radical-induced loss of phycoerythrin fluorescence, the total antioxidant capacity present in lung tissue homogenate from terminally ill animals was not diminished when compared to that prepared from lungs of control mice. We conclude that although early stages of influenza infection are associated with the presence of oxidative stress in the lung tissue and alveolar fluid lining the epithelial cells, this stress does not appear to overwhelm local antioxidant defenses. The results therefore do not support a direct causative role of oxidative tissue damage in the pathogenesis of influenza virus infection.
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PMID:Oxidative stress in lungs of mice infected with influenza A virus. 132 Oct 77

The mechanisms of formation and removal of active oxygen species and lipid peroxides in biological systems have been briefly reviewed. Cytotoxic active oxygen species can be classified into two types: (a) radical species such as O2-. (superoxide) and HO. (hydroxyl radical) and (b) non-radical species such as H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) and 1O2 (singlet oxygen). The direct or indirect attack of active oxygen species on polyunsaturated fatty acids, essential constituents of biological membranes, has been shown to result in the formation of a number of peroxidative lipid breakdown-products: LOOH (lipid hydroperoxide), LOO. (lipid peroxyl radical) and LO. (lipid alkoxyl radical). The lipid peroxide decomposition is probably dependent on the presence of ferric-ferrous ions. These processes are called lipid peroxidation reactions. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the role played by lipid peroxidation in many disease states. The multiple lines of defense against toxic oxygen intermediates consist of enzymatic systems, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase, and furthermore involves antioxidant capacities such as those of vitamin E and vitamin C. In biological systems, there are naturally occurring lipid-soluble (vitamin E and ubiquinone) and water-soluble (vitamin C, reduced glutathione and uric acid) antioxidants. Therefore, so long as homeostasis is maintained between the rate of radical generation and the rate of radical dissipation, the cellular generation of radicals may not be harmful. In contrast, this balance can be disturbed if cellular defenses are decreased or if there is a significant increase in the flux of radical generation. Once lipid peroxidation is initiated, the reactive intermediate formed induces cell damage.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Formation and removal of active oxygen species and lipid peroxides in biological systems]. 132 2

Human spermatozoa contain appreciable amounts of intracellular glutathione, which has a protective function against peroxidative degradation of spermatozoal polyunsaturated fatty acids by the NADPH-dependent glutathione peroxidase/reductase enzymatic system. The glutathione system provides a basic defense against peroxidative damage, without which the superoxide dismutase system would dominate. Since oxidative damage is said to include enzyme leakage and changes in metabolism, cytochrome oxidase and lactate dehydrogenase activities were used as indicators of the energy metabolism in unwashed and washed human spermatozoa during lipid peroxidation. Lipid peroxidation was induced by aerobic incubation of sperms in the presence of sodium ascorbate and ferrous sulphate. In addition, since NADPH concentrations influence the concentration of reduced glutathione, we studied glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity as an indicator of pentose phosphate shunt activity, the main source of NADPH. Microdensitometric measurements of the three enzymes were made by a Vickers M85a scanning microdensitometer. We found that the lipid peroxidation process greatly affects the 3 enzymatic activities examined and that seminal plasma protects against the extensive deleterious effects of lipid peroxidation.
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PMID:Cytophotometric assay of cytochrome oxidase, lactate dehydrogenase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities in human peroxidized spermatozoa. 133 42

The effect of methionine or citrate on antioxidant defense system has been studied in urolithic rat. Liver weight and its protein concentration did not change in the rats fed with calculi producing diet (CPD) when compared to normal diet fed rats. Feeding rats along with citrate (c-CPD) or methionine (m-CPD) improved their body weight gain. Liver microsomes and mitochondria fractions of CPD and c-CPD fed groups showed increased susceptibility for lipid peroxidation in presence of ascorbate and t-butyl hydroperoxide when compared to either control or m-CPD fed groups. Increased superoxide dismutase and xanthine oxidase activities, decreased catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities, decreased concentrations of reduced glutathione, total thiols, ascorbic acid and vitamin-E and increased formation of hydroxyl radical, hydroperoxides and diene conjugates were observed in the liver of both CPD fed group as well as c-CPD fed group. Except SOD and xanthine oxidase, all other parameters were normalized in m-CPD fed group. This suggested that feeding methionine reduced the susceptibility for lipid peroxidation by restoration of the level of free radical scavengers.
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PMID:Restoration of antioxidants in liver by methionine feeding in experimental rat urolithiasis. 142 65

We examine the evidence for free radical involvement and oxidative stress in the pathological process underlying Parkinson's disease, from postmortem brain tissue. The concept of free radical involvement is supported by enhanced basal lipid peroxidation in substantia nigra in patients with Parkinson's disease, demonstrated by increased levels of malondialdehyde and lipid hydroperoxides. The activity of many of the protective mechanisms against oxidative stress does not seem to be significantly altered in the nigra in Parkinson's disease. Thus, activities of catalase and glutathione peroxidase are more or less unchanged, as are concentrations of vitamin C and vitamin E. The activity of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase and the levels of the antioxidant ion zinc are, however, increased, which may reflect oxidative stress in substantia nigra. Levels of reduced glutathione are decreased in nigra in Parkinson's disease; this decrease does not occur in other brain areas or in other neurodegenerative illnesses affecting this brain region (i.e., multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy). Altered glutathione metabolism may prevent inactivation of hydrogen peroxide and enhance formation of toxic hydroxyl radicals. In brain material from patients with incidental Lewy body disease (presymptomatic Parkinson's disease), there is no evidence for alterations in iron metabolism and no significant change in mitochondrial complex I function. The levels of reduced glutathione in substantia nigra, however, are reduced to the same extent as in advanced Parkinson's disease. These data suggest that changes in glutathione function are an early component of the pathological process of Parkinson's disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Oxidative stress as a cause of nigral cell death in Parkinson's disease and incidental Lewy body disease. The Royal Kings and Queens Parkinson's Disease Research Group. 151 Mar 85

Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) is a chronic osteoarthritic disease, endemic in parts of China. Its etiology is unknown. Selenium deficiency, high concentration of organic matter (mainly fulvic acid) in drinking water, and severe contamination of grain by fungi have been proposed environmental causes. Free radicals, possible mediators between the environmental factors and origin of KBD, have been studied in this work. Drinking water from KBD-affected areas contains a higher level of semiquinone radicals than that from disease-free areas. In animal experiments, fulvic acid (FA) accumulated in the skeletal system as semiquinone radicals. Contamination of grain by Fusarium oxysporum or Alternaria alternata significantly increased the content of semiquinone radicals. Furthermore, corn grown in endemic areas had a higher content of radicals than that from disease-free areas. The g factor values for these radicals from contaminated corn were about 2.0040, in the range of semiquinone radical. In monolayer culture of human embryonic chondrocytes, FA and aqueous extracts of grain contaminated by Fusarium injured the chondrocytes and enhanced lipid peroxidation. Selenite and superoxide dismutase (SOD) protected the cells from injury by these toxins and reduced lipid peroxide. Lower glutathione peroxidase activities and higher levels of lipid peroxidation were also found in the children living in KBD-affected regions. Thus, FA and the mycotoxin, which are seen as exogenous free-radical carriers, are important environmental factors in the pathogenesis of Kashin-Beck disease; and selenium, vitamin C, and vitamin E, which inhibit free-radical formation, are considered to be protective.
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PMID:Study on the pathogenic factors of Kashin-Beck disease. 154 36


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