Oxidative Stress and the Brain: An Insight into Cognitive Aging
The last two decades has witnessed accumulating evidences in favour of oxidative stress as a causative link between normal brain aging and several neuropathological conditions. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is considered a major factor contributing to dec
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Abstract The last two decades has witnessed accumulating evidences in favour of oxidative stress as a causative link between normal brain aging and several neuropathological conditions. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is considered a major factor contributing to decline in brain function with aging. Cognitive impairment and oxidative stress are common occurrences in old age and are often traceable to events such as increased lipid peroxidation and protein oxidations in specific cognitive regions of the brain, the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. With the advent of various cognitive tests, oxidative pathology is further confirmed by behavioural changes in animal and humans as well. While much of the biomedical research is concentrating on methods to cure aging related neurodegeneration and cognitive decline, biogerontologists are seeking something larger with a view to finding ways to prevent it at its root. Here we discuss and highlight the possibilities of curtailing the cognitive deficits during normal and pathological aging through evidences in favour of vitamin and non-vitamin supplements —in an effort to run the biological clock backwards and extend healthy brain function.
Keywords Aging brain Antioxidants Neurodegeneration Oxidative stress
Cognition
Lipofuscin
1 Introduction It is known that although the brain makes up 2 % of the total body weight and uses almost 20 % of the cardiac output to meet its ATP demands, is most vulnerable to the increased production of superoxide (O2 ) because of its weak antioxidant defences compared to the heart that is one other post-mitotic organ. Paradoxically, S. Asha Devi (&) A. Satpati Laboratory of Gerontology, Department of Zoology, Bangalore University, Bangalore 560056, India e-mail: [email protected] A. Satpati e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 P.C. Rath et al. (eds.), Topics in Biomedical Gerontology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2155-8_8
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the various chemicals referred to as neurotransmitters that the brain uses for transmitting messages also participate in reactions that generate many important free radicals (FRs). Although in an healthy brain these FRs are neutralized by multiple antioxidant defences, superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), the generation of reactive peroxyl, alkoxyl and hydroxyl radicals from hydrogen peroxide and many of the lipid peroxides are very high with aging because of the increased accumulation of reactive iron. One of the most significant findings in aging brain’s function is a gradual decline in spatial learning, memory and attention. Because of the recent efforts in reducing oxidative stress (OS) through antioxidants, this review focuses on the normal aging brain and the impact of antioxidants on the cognitive loss with evidences from animal and human studies. Concomitantly, a brief review of the involvement of antioxidants in the pathology of progression of neurodegenerative diseases
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