title: Free radical scavengers: chemical concepts and clinical relevance.
abstract: Free radicals are involved in the pathology of many CNS disorders, like Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or stroke. This discovery lead to the development of many radical scavengers for the clinical treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, the different chemical concepts for free radical scavenging will be discussed: nitrons, thiols, iron chelators, phenols, and catechols. Especially catechols, like the naturally occurring flavonols, the synthetic drug nitecapone, or the endogenous catacholamines and their metabolites, are of great interest, as they combine iron chelating with radical scavenging activity. We present data on the radical scvenging activity of dopamine and apomorphine, which prevent lipid peroxidation in rat brain mitochondria and protect PC12 cells against H2O2-toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gassen
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Youdim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000975:Antioxidants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016166:Free Radical Scavengers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005609:Free Radicals; D006801:Humans; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D016166:Free Radical Scavengers; D005609:Free Radicals