Therapeutic benefits of oxygen radical scavenger treatments remain unproven.
Pharmaceutical firms and practitioners are rushing to test the medical benefits of oxy radical scavengers in a multitude of clinical situations despite the fact that convincing evidence of oxygen radical tissue damage in vivo is lacking and that properly controlled trials have been few and far between. Analysis of the therapeutic literature reveals disturbing discrepancies: unconvincing animal data, disparities between pharmacologic and enzymatic activity, and prolonged clinical improvements reported in situations where none should be expected. The proper control, inactivated scavenging enzyme, has never been used clinically or in animal models. The results of clinical trials with scavengers have a wider interpretation, since benefits are extrapolated to imply pathophysiologic mechanisms. It is especially important, therefore, no matter how hard we would like to believe that oxygen radical scavenging will be a therapeutic breakthrough, that we insist upon tightly designed clinical trials.
D000818:Animals; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy; D002374:Catalase / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005609:Free Radicals; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D007596:Joints; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000188:drug therapy; D010100:Oxygen / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D005609:Free Radicals; D002374:Catalase; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase; D010100:Oxygen