Stroke occurs when blood vessels bringing oxygen to the brain burst or become clogged. As a result, the brain does not receive essential blood flow, and a portion will die. Oxidative stress is a common factor in AD and stroke, as well as in a variety of other illnesses. It occurs when free radicals, highly reactive molecules, accumulate and cause damage to other molecules within the body. They bind to proteins, accumulate in lipids, and damage nucleic acids.
Antioxidants help control oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals.
The enzyme MnSOD is one of the primary antioxidant enzymes in mammalian tissues. Mattson showed that MnSOD increased the efficiency of mitochondria, power-supplying organelles within the cell, by preventing production of a free radical called superoxide. Mattson's current findings build upon a series of experiments aimed at determining the protective ability of the human-MnSOD enzyme. Neurons were removed from brains of rats and humans, and placed in cell cultures. The human-MnSOD gene was introduced into these nerve cells.