https://staff.blog.ui.ac.id/hsuryadi/files/2012/02/ROS_RNS.pdf

Free radicals and antioxidants in normal physiological functions and human disease

Oxidative stress has been implicated in the progression of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Oxygen is vital for life but is also potentially dangerous, and a complex system of checks and balances exists for utilizing this essential element. Oxidative stress is the result of an imbalance in pro-oxidant/antioxidant homeostasis that leads to the generation of toxic reactive oxygen species. The systems in place to cope with the biochemistry of oxygen are complex, and many questions about the mechanisms of oxygen regulation remain unanswered. However, this same complexity provides a number of therapeutic targets, and different strategies, including novel metal-protein attenuating compounds, aimed at a variety of targets have shown promise in clinical studies.

Neurodegenerative diseases and oxidative stress.

Recently, we demonstrated a significant increase of an oxidized nucleoside derived from RNA, 8-hydroxyguanosine (8OHG), and an oxidized amino acid, nitrotyrosine in vulnerable neurons of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). To determine whether oxidative damage is an early- or end-stage event in the process of neurodegeneration in AD, we investigated the relationship between neuronal 8OHG and nitrotyrosine and histological and clinical variables, i.e. amyloid-beta (A beta) plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), as well as duration of dementia and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) genotype. Our findings show that oxidative damage is quantitatively greatest early in the disease and reduces with disease progression. Surprisingly, we found that increases in A beta deposition are associated with decreased oxidative damage. These relationships are more significant in ApoE epsilon4 carriers. Moreover, neurons with NFT show a 40%-56% decrease in relative 8OHG levels compared with neurons free of NFT. Our observations indicate that increased oxidative damage is an early event in AD that decreases with disease progression and lesion formation. These findings suggest that AD is associated with compensatory changes that reduce damage from reactive oxygen.

Oxidative damage is the earliest event in Alzheimer disease.

The use of zinc in medicinal skin cream was mentioned in Egyptian papyri from 2000 BC (for example, the Smith Papyrus), and zinc has apparently been used fairly steadily throughout Roman and modern times (for example, as the American lotion named for its zinc ore, 'Calamine'). It is, therefore, somewhat ironic that zinc is a relatively late addition to the pantheon of signal ions in biology and medicine. However, the number of biological functions, health implications and pharmacological targets that are emerging for zinc indicate that it might turn out to be 'the calcium of the twenty-first century'.

The neurobiology of zinc in health and disease

Copper Homeostasis and Neurodegenerative Disorders (Alzheimer's, Prion, and Parkinson's Diseases and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:248625/UQ248625_OA.pdf

Karen C. Stokes

Papers

Cu(II) Potentiation of Alzheimer Aβ Neurotoxicity CORRELATION WITH CELL-FREE HYDROGEN PEROXIDE PRODUCTION AND METAL REDUCTION