TY - JOUR N2 - Biological tissues require oxygen to meet their energetic demands. However, the consumption of oxygen also results in the generation of free radicals that may have damaging effects on cells. The brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of reactive oxygen species due to its high demand for oxygen, and its abundance of highly peroxidisable substrates. Oxidative stress is caused by an imbalance in the redox state of the cell, either by overproduction of reactive oxygen species, or by dysfunction of the antioxidant systems. Oxidative stress has been detected in a range of neurodegenerative disease, and emerging evidence from in vitro and in vivo disease models suggests that oxidative stress may play a role in disease pathogenesis. However, the promise of antioxidants as novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases has not been borne out in clinical studies. In this review, we critically assess the hypothesis that oxidative stress is a crucial player in common neurodegenerative disease and discuss the source of free radicals in such diseases. Furthermore, we examine the issues surrounding the failure to translate this hypothesis into an effective clinical treatment. KW - Science & Technology KW - Life Sciences & Biomedicine KW - Cell Biology KW - AMYLOID-BETA PEPTIDE KW - CYTOSOLIC PHOSPHOLIPASE A(2) KW - NADPH OXIDASE KW - ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE KW - PARKINSONS-DISEASE KW - CELL-DEATH KW - COMPLEX-I KW - MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION KW - UNCOUPLING PROTEIN-2 KW - DOPAMINERGIC-NEURONS A1 - Gandhi, S A1 - Abramov, AY SN - 1942-0994 EP - 11 AV - public Y1 - 2012/01/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/428010 ID - discovery10043727 N1 - © 2012 S. Gandhi and A. Y. Abramov. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. TI - Mechanism of Oxidative Stress in Neurodegeneration VL - 2012 JF - Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity PB - HINDAWI LTD ER -