Strategies to target mitochondria and oxidative stress by antioxidants

Abstract

Many antioxidants have shown a marked disparity in their beneficial effects in laboratory studies and their inability to demonstrate beneficial effects in clinical trials. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find highly contradictory clinical results, which may explain why consumers are less enthusiastic about the use of antioxidants. This review aims to highlight the critical role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants, the potential mechanisms that might account for these discrepancies in clinical trials, and the strategies to target mitochondrial oxidative stress by antioxidants. There is an urgent need to develop standard methods to evaluate antioxidants and oxidative stress in humans at the mitochondrial level. The determination of the basal level of ROS in normal human may be used to identify pathological ROS levels in patients to recommend specific guidelines for antioxidant treatment.