ABSTRACT
Oxidative damage in neuronal cells and DNA has been implicated in the patho genesis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and prion diseases (bovine spongiform en cephalopathy, scrapie, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), as well as in the etiology of brain cancer. There are several indications for this increased oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases, including increased iron levels, lipid peroxidation, nitrite [a marker for nitric oxide (NO) production] concentrations and levels of nitrotyrosine-containing proteins, decreased peroxidase and catalase levels, in creased superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels, and decreased glutathione levels (16). Oxidative damage/stress may induce apoptosis and/or necrosis in neuronal cells, which have been proposed to play a crucial role in neurodegenerative dis ease (7-9).
