Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer Patients in Different Stages of the Disease

Increasing evidence demonstrates that oxidative stress causes damage to cell function with aging and is involved in a number of age-related disorders including atherosclerosis, arthritis, and neurodegenerative disorders. Cellular changes show that oxidative stress is a condition that precedes the appearance of the hallmark pathologies of the disease, neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. The aim of this article is to analyze the different biomarkers of oxidative stress in Alzheimer patients, in different stages of the illness, and compare the results with a control group. A nutritional evaluation was carried out, including anthropometric and biological measures and a 3 day dietary record. The concentration of substances which react to thiobarbituric acid (TBARS) was measured as a marker of the degree of peroxidation using the HPLC method. The oxidation of proteins was analyzed by measuring the carbonyl groups in plasma. In addition, measurements were made of the total antioxidant activity in plasma and the activity of endogenous antioxidant enzymes such as gluthatione peroxidase, gluthatione reductase and superoxide dismutase. The total antioxidant plasmatic status of the patients with Alzheimer both in light-moderate phase and in advanced phase was lower than in the control. No significant differences were observed between the different stages of the disease in protein oxidation levels. Peroxidation was higher in patients in the advanced stage of the disease than in the control group. However, no significant differences were observed between the different stages of the disease. In this preliminary study, it was observed that Alzheimer patients in the light-moderate stage already present oxidative stress levels above those of the control group.