Association of Oxidative Stress with Neurological Disorders.

BACKGORUND: Oxidative stress is one of the main contributing factors involved in cerebral biochemical impairment. The higher susceptibility of the central nervous system to reactive oxygen species mediated damage could be attributed to several factors. For example, neurons use a greater quantity of oxygen, many parts of the brain have higher concentraton of iron, and neuronal mitochondria produce huge content of hydrogen peroxide. In addition, neuronal membranes have polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are predominantly vulnerable to oxidative stress (OS). OS is the imbalance between reactive oxygen species generation and cellular antioxidant potential. This may lead to various pathological conditions and diseases, especially neurodegenerative diseases such as, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's diseases. OBJECTIVES: In this study, we explored the involvement of OS in neurodegenerative diseases. METHODS: We used different search terms like "oxidative stress and neurological disorders" "free radicals and neurodegenerative disorders" "oxidative stress, free radicals, and neurological disorders" and "association of oxidative stress with the name of disorders taken from the list of neurological disorders. We tried to summarize the source, biological effects, and physiologic functions of ROS. RESULTS: Finally, it was noted that more than 190 neurological disorders are associated with oxidative stress. CONCLUSION: More elaborated studies in the future will certainly help in understanding the exact mechanism involved in neurological diseases and provide insight into revelation of therapeutic targets.

Sleep Disorders Research From 1945 to 2020: A Bibliometric Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the present review is to perform the 1st bibliometric analysis of sleep disorders research. METHODS: The data was retrieved from Scopus in July 2020 for detailed analysis. RESULTS: The 1st precise document about the sleep disorder was published in 1945. Till 15th July 2020, a total of 69657 documents were found in the Scopus database. Approximately eighty-two percent (57013/81.87%) of documents are published in the last twenty years (from 2001-2020). We calculated the per-year Growth Rate (GR) of publications (from 2000-onwards). The highest number of documents are published in 2019 (4337/7.90% of 57013) followed by 2018 (4249/7.74% of 57013) and 2017 (3974/7.24% of 57013). The productivity index (PI) for 1950-1960 and 2011-2020 era was found to be 100.21. We also provided the details of the top 50 countries with the maximum number of publications (from 1945 to July 2020). The top three (3) countries are the USA, with 24262 publications (34.83%), followed by UK (5566/8.0%) and Germany (4791/6.87%). We also performed the co-words analysis. Total 956643 (0.95 million) keywords were retrieved from 69657 published documents. After a critical analysis, we categorized them into different groups to show the trend in various domains. In the next phase of the study, only those documents were analyzed, which contained the phrase "sleep disorder" in the titles of the publications. Total 3626 documents were found. We calculated the per-year growth rate (GR). The continental distribution, the list of top twenty authors, sources/journals, departments or institutes, countries and research documents with highest citations are provided. By VOS viewer analysis, 6752, 36511 and 11473 terms in titles of the manuscripts, abstracts, and keywords were recorded, respectively. This may help in describing the overall trend in these publications. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides a detailed list of top authors, departments, countries, sources, and top 20 most cited documents. The co-words analysis may help in describing the trends in the field of sleep disorders.

Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Potential of One Hundred Medicinal Plants.

Reactive species are produced in biological system because of redox reactions. The imbalance in pro-oxidant and antioxidant homeostasis leads to the production of toxic reactive oxygen and nitrogen species like hydrogen peroxide, organic peroxides, hydroxyl radicals, superoxide anion and nitric oxide. Inactivation of metabolic enzymes, oxidation of biomolecules and cellular damage are some of the prominent characteristics of reactive species. Similarly, oxidative stress has been associated with more than one hundred (100) pathologies such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, pancreatic and liver diseases, joint disorders, cardiac fibrosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, neurological diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disorder, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease), ageing and cancer etc. The toxicity of reactive species is balanced by the integrated antioxidant systems, which include enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Antioxidant therapies or defenses protect the biological sites by removing or quenching the free radicals (prooxidants). Medicinal plants can not only protect the oxidative damage, but also play a vital role in health maintenance and prevention of chronic degenerative diseases. This review will provide a valuable discussion of one hundred (100) well known medicinal plants, which may add to the optimization of antioxidants rank. Besides, some of the antioxidant evaluation techniques or mechanisms via which medicinal plants act as antioxidants are also described.

Association of Oxidative Stress with Psychiatric Disorders.

BACKGROUND: When concentrations of both reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species exceed the antioxidative capability of an organism, the cells undergo oxidative impairment. Impairments in membrane integrity and lipid and protein oxidation, protein mutilation, DNA damage, and neuronal dysfunction are some of the fundamental consequences of oxidative stress. METHODS: The purpose of this work was to review the associations between oxidative stress and psychological disorders. The search terms were the following: "oxidative stress and affective disorders," "free radicals and neurodegenerative disorders," "oxidative stress and psychological disorders," "oxidative stress, free radicals, and psychiatric disorders," and "association of oxidative stress." These search terms were used in conjunction with each of the diagnostic categories of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. RESULTS: Genetic, pharmacological, biochemical, and preclinical therapeutic studies, case reports, and clinical trials were selected to explore the molecular aspects of psychological disorders that are associated with oxidative stress. We identified a broad spectrum of 83 degenerative syndromes and psychiatric disorders that were associated with oxidative stress. CONCLUSION: The multi-dimensional information identified herein supports the role of oxidative stress in various psychiatric disorders. We discuss the results from the perspective of developing novel therapeutic interventions.

Ethanolic extract of Nigella sativa protects Fe(II) induced lipid peroxidation in rat's brain, kidney and liver homogenates.

The study describes the effect of ethanolic extract of Nigella sativa against Fe(II) induced lipid peroxidation. Basal and Fe(II) induced thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) production was significantly inhibited by the ethanolic extract of Nigella sativa at 25-200 µg/ml. Our data revealed that the extract has high DPPH radical scavenging activity at highest tested concentrations. The extract significantly chelated Fe(II) and scavenged hydroxyl (OH) radical at 25-200µg/ml concentration. The nutritional analysis was performed and carbohydrate, fats, fiber, protein, moisture and ash content were measured in the studied extract. The phytochemical analysis confirmed the presence of alkaloid, carbohydrate & sugar, glycosides, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, protein and amino acid, phytosterols, tannins, gum and mucilage. The extract also showed significant antimicrobial activities against 10 bacterial strains i.e. Salmonella typhi, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escheria coli, Xanthomonas, Salmonella heidelberg, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium and Escheria coli (human) and 5 fungal strains i.e. Aspergillus niger, Entomola, Aspergillus flavus, Alternaria alternata and Penicillium. This study confirms the potential antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of ethanolic extract of Nigella sativa which can be considered not only as a diet supplement but can be used against a variety of free radical induced damage diseases.