ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to summarize the types of experiments that delineate the physical and chemical modes of action of lipophilic antioxidants and help in the design and optimization of membrane-targeted antioxidant drugs. Biological lipid peroxidation, as all chain reactions, comprises the chemical reaction steps of initiation, propagation, and termination. The 21-aminosteroids, members of one such class of novel antioxidants, have been tested in a variety of animal injury and disease models. One compound in particular, tirilazad mesylate, is protective in many of these disease/injury models and is in advanced clinical trials for head and spinal cord injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and ischemic stroke. The chapter attempts to emphasize that one must define the phrases anti-oxidant/free-radical scavenger, on the one hand, and inhibitor of lipid peroxidation, on the other. One of the most important features of a compound designed to be an inhibitor of lipid peroxidation is its chemical structure.
