Research: Oxidative stress

Epub: Acar et al. Evaluation of serum oxidant/antioxidant balance in multiple sclerosis.Acta Neurol Belg. 2012 Mar

BACKGROUND: The total oxidative status (TOS)/total anti-oxidative status (TAS) ratio can provide information on an individual's absolute oxidative stress index (OSI).

Oxidative stress is believed to be a major driver of damage in MS; it occurs as part of the inflammatory cascade.
These researchers' investigated the alterations in the oxidant-antioxidant balance by measuring the oxidant parameters OSI, TOS, and malondialdehyde (MDA, a marker of oxidative damage) together with the antioxidant parameters such as TAS, and superoxide dismutase (SOD, an enzyme that is part of the oxidative stress cascade) in MSers with RRMS.

METHODS: 35 ambulatory MSers with relapsing-remitting MS (35.8 ± 8.7 years) and 32 age- and activity-matched healthy control subjects (35.1 ± 3.7 years) that participated in the study. Serum TAS and TOS levels were determined using new automated methods.

RESULTS: MSers had higher concentrations of MDA (151.5 ± 51.1 vs. 111.3 ± 27.4 nmol/g protein, respectively; p < 0.001), TOS (148.1 ± 162.5 vs. 48.3 ± 46.4 mmol hydrogen peroxide Equiv./g protein, respectively; p = 0.002), OSI (21124 ± 32543 vs. 5294 ± 5562, respectively; p = 0.008), and SOD (4.5 ± 0.7 vs. 3.4 ± 0.6 U/L, respectively; p < 0.001) compared with healthy controls. On the other hand, MS patients had lower concentrations of nitric oxide (12.3 ± 6.9 vs. 17.4 ± 2.5 μmol/g protein, respectively; p < 0.001) and TAS (0.82 ± 0.27 vs. 0.26 ± 0.15, respectively; p = 0.011) compared with healthy controls.



The balance of influences in oxidative stress

CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that the oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of MS.

"Clearly there are inbalances of oxidant species may be important. However, as the study only looked at blood the relevance of the findings to what happens in the brain and spinal cord is not clear. What is important is that BG12 an emerging DMT targets anti-oxidant pathways."

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