Biothiols in Health and Disease (Antioxidants in Health and Disease Series, 2) PDF
Preview Biothiols in Health and Disease (Antioxidants in Health and Disease Series, 2)
Biothiols in Health and Disease title: Antioxidants in Health and Disease ; 2 author: Packer, Lester. publisher: Informa Healthcare isbn10 | asin: 0824796543 print isbn13: 9780824796549 ebook isbn13: 9780585343013 language: English Antioxidants, Thiols--Physiological effect, Active oxygen--Pathophysiology, Free radicals (Chemistry)--Pathophysiology, subject Glutathione--Physiological effect, Sulfhydryl Compounds--metabolism, Glutathione--metabolism, Thioctic Acid-- pharmacology, Oxidative St publication date: 1995 lcc: RB170.B57 1995eb ddc: 612/.01575 Antioxidants, Thiols--Physiological effect, Active oxygen--Pathophysiology, Free radicals (Chemistry)--Pathophysiology, subject: Glutathione--Physiological effect, Sulfhydryl Compounds--metabolism, Glutathione--metabolism, Thioctic Acid-- pharmacology, Oxidative St Biothiols in Health and Disease ANITOXIDANTS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE Series Editors L P , P .D. ESTER ACKER H University of California Berkeley, California J F , P .D, M.D. ÜRGEN UCHS H Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany 1. Vitamin A in Health and Disease, edited by Rune Blomhoff 2. Biothols in Health and Disease, edited by Lester Packer and Enrique Cadenas Additional Volumes in Preparation Handbook of Antioxidants, edited by Enrique Cadenas and Lester Packer Related Volumes Vitamin E in Health and Disease, edited by Lester Packer and Jürgen Fuchs Page i Biothiols in Health and Disease Edited by Lester Packer University of California Berkeley, California Enrique Cadenas University of Southern California School of Pharmacy Los Angeles, California Page ii ISBN: 0-8247-9654-3 The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in bulk quantities. For more information, write to Special Sales/Professional Marketing at the address below. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 1995 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Marcel Dekker, Inc. 270 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Current printing (last digit): 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Page iii SERIES INTRODUCTION In June of 1992, 17 international researchers in the field of free radical and antioxidant biology and preventive medicine met at the village of Saas Fee, Switzerland, and drew up the Saas Fee Declaration to recognize the importance of prevention in medicine and health. Since then, hundreds of researchers from around the world have signed the declaration: Saas Fee Declaration On the significance of antioxidants in preventive medicine. 1. The intensive research on free radicals of the past 15 years by scientists worldwide has led to the statement in 1992 that antioxidant nutrients may have major significance in the prevention of a number of diseases. These include cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, some forms of cancer and several other disorders, many of which may be age-related. 2. There is now general agreement that there is a need for further work at the fundamental scientific level, as well as in large-scale randomized trials and in clinical medicine, which can be expected to lead to more precise information being made available. 3. The major objective of this work is the prevention of disease. This may be achieved by use of antioxidants which are natural physiological substances. The strategy should be to achieve optimal intakes of these antioxidant nutrients as part of preventive medicine. 4. It is quite clear that many environmental sources of free radicals exist, such as ozone, sunlight, and other forms of radiation, smog, dust, and other atmospheric pol- Page iv lutants. The optimal intake of antioxidants provides a preventive measure against these hazards. 5. There is a great need for improvement in public awareness of the potential preventive benefits of antioxidant nutrient intake. There is overwhelming evidence that the antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin C, carotenoids, alpha-lipoic acid and others are safe even at very high levels of intake. 6. Moreover, there is now substantial agreement that governmental agencies, health professionals and the media should promote information transfer to the general public, particularly when evidence exists that benefits for human health and public expenditure are overwhelming. This declaration arose from the overwhelming evidence now available indicating that antioxidants play a critical role in wellness, health maintenance, and the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals that are generated during normal metabolism and during exposure to environmental insult. Free radicals play a role in most major health problems of the industrialized world, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and disorders of aging. Some antioxidants are quite familiar as vitamins or vitamin-forming compounds: vitamin E, vitamin C, and the carotenoids, including beta-carotene. These antioxidants must be constantly replenished through the diet. Others, such as ubiquinols and the thiol antioxidants, including glutathione and lipoic acid, are manufactured by the body, but the levels of many of these can be bolstered through dietary supplementation. Until recently, it was thought that each antioxidant played its role in isolation from the others. But work in several laboratories indicates that there is a dynamic interplay among the systems. For example, when vitamin E neutralizes a free radical in a membrane, it becomes itself a relatively harmless free radical, which decomposes. However, vitamin C can regenerate vitamin E from the vitamin E radical, in effect "recycling" vitamin E. Vitamin C becomes a radical in the process, but it, too, can be recycled by interacting with other antioxidant systems. It has been shown that these interactions occur in the test tube, and nutritional supplementation studies support this idea for the whole organism. Thus, a picture is emerging of a complex interplay among the defense systems, with the various antioxidant cycles acting to prevent cell damage and disease. Our knowledge is far from complete but these findings already have implications in terms of recommendations for supplementation. Hence, it seems particularly appropriate to offer this series at the present time. Never has the demand for knowledge about antioxidants been greater, and never has their potential for treating disease and improving health been clearer. The series highlights natural antioxidants and artificial antioxidants that mimic natural systems. Page v In the past few years unprecedented progress has been made in the recognition and understanding of the role of thiol antioxidants in protection against disease and cell regulation, and in mechanisms where thiols and thiol enzymes protect against environmental factors that are sources of damage to living systems. Thiols play a central role in the structure and activity of many vital systems. These include receptor activity, hormone action, oxidation and reduction of key cellular reductants, cell signaling, gene expression, and cell proliferation and differentiation. Thiols are also involved in enzyme activity, not only structurally but also catalytically as, for example, in the glutathione peroxidase gene superfamily. Further, thiols such as glutathione, thioredoxin, mono-and dithiols like cysteine or N-acetyl-cysteine and lipoic acid are important in antioxidant protection. Because of these numerous functions, nutritional approaches to modulate thiol status constitute a new and emerging field of research, in which the potential beneficial role of thiols in prevention and protection against acute and chronic diseases is being sought. This volume will therefore be of interest to investigators in numerous disciplines in which new knowledge in the field of thiols is pertinent, including biochemists and molecular biologists, nutritional scientists, environmental toxicologists, plant scientists, clinicians, and others in the biomedical community. LESTER PACKER JÜRGEN FUCHS
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