Researchers' Proposals

EVALUATION OF ANTIOXODANT VS PROOXIDANT ACTIVITIES

The aim of the research is to evaluate antioxidant and prooxidant properties of xenobiotics, drugs and food additives, in particular. In the framework of this project we wish to comparatively characterize OH radical scavenger capacity of some herbal constituents, central nervous system drugs and food additives with known antioxidant properties. In the next step we plan to characterize the structure of the main products formed as a result of the OH scavenging reactions of the compounds. After a successful structural characterization of the products we plan to synthesize them and investigate their prooxidant activity in in vitro cellular systems. The results of these investigations can help to design and use safer drugs, herbs and food additives that are not converted into prooxidant species as a result of their reactions with OH radicals, the most deleterious kind of ROS formed under physiological conditions.