Oxidative Stress

Oxidative Stress is a state characterized by an excess of free radical groups in the body, which creates a potentially unstable cellular environment linked to tissue damage, accelerated aging, and degenerative disease. Oxidative stress can result from many factors, including exposure to alcohol, medications, poor nutrition, trauma, cold, toxins, and over-exercise.

There is increasing evidence that free radicals damage biomolecules, leading to several specific and diverse diseases in humans, such as atherosclerosis, cerebral and heart ischemia-reperfusion injury, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, diabetes, aging, and neurodegenerative conditions such as AD. 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8OHdG) is a modified base that occurs in DNA due to attack by hydroxyl radicals, and has become increasingly popular as a sensitive, stable, and integral marker of oxidative damage in cellular DNA

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) are found in the presence of several human diseases. Proteins can be important molecular biomarkers of oxidative/nitrosative damage. To date, it is to be determined if this relationship is causative or simply correlative. The study of these modifications is contributing to establish a relationship between indication of the presence of disease and protein structural and functional changes. The identification and quantitative measurement of tyrosine products such as chlorotyrosine, dityrosine and nitrotyrosine are now being examined as such biomarkers.