Do low molecular weight antioxidants contribute to the Protection against oxidative damage? The interrelation between oxidative stress and low molecular weight antioxidants based on data from the MARK-AGE study

Oxidative stress (OS) is associated with (or/and caused by) excessive production of damaging reactive oxygen and/or nitrogen species (ROS, RNS), which play a role in many pathologies. Because OS is a risk factor for many diseases, much effort (and money) is devoted to early diagnosis and treatment of OS. The desired benefit of the "identify (OS) and treat (by low molecular weight antioxidants, LMWA)" approach is to enable selective treatment of patients under OS. The present work aims at gaining understanding of the benefit of the antioxidants based on interrelationship between the concentration of different OS biomarkers and LMWA. We studied the effects of 12 LMWA (including tocopherols, carotenoids and ascorbic acid) on the OS status, as observed with 8 biomarkers of oxidative damage (including malondialdehyde, protein carbonyls, 3-nitrotyrosine). In view of the results as well as the difficulty of quantitating the OS and the very different effects of various LMWA, the use of the "identify and treat" approach is questionable.

Pinchuk I, Kohen R, Stuetz W, Weber D, Franceschi C, Capri M, Hurme M, Grubeck-Loebenstein B, Schön C, Bernhardt J, Debacq-Chainiaux F, Dollé MET, Jansen EHJM, Gonos ES, Sikora E, Breusing N, Gradinaru D, Moreno-Villanueva M, Bürkle A, Grune T, Lichtenberg D

Arch Biochem Biophys. 2021 Nov 30;713:109061. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2021.109061. Epub 2021 Oct 16. PMID: 34662556