ascorbic-acid and Central-Nervous-System-Diseases

Alzheimer's disease is one of the most challenging brain disorders and has profound medical and social consequences. It affects approximately 15 million persons worldwide, and many more family members and care givers are touched by the disease. The initiating molecular event(s) is not known, and its pathophysiology is highly complex. However, free radical injury appears to be a fundamental process contributing to the neuronal death seen in the disorder, and this hypothesis is supported by many (although not all) studies using surrogate markers of oxidative damage. In vitro and animal studies suggest that various compounds with antioxidant ability can attenuate the oxidative stress induced by beta-amyloid. Recently, clinical trials have demonstrated potential benefits from treatment with the antioxidants, vitamin E, selegiline, extract of Gingko biloba, and idebenone. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings and explore the optimum timing and antioxidant combination of such treatments in this therapeutically frustrating disease.

Topics: Alzheimer Disease; Amyloid beta-Peptides; Animals; Animals, Genetically Modified; Antioxidants; Ascorbic Acid; Benzoquinones; Central Nervous System; Central Nervous System Diseases; Clinical Trials as Topic; Drug Therapy, Combination; Free Radicals; Ginkgo biloba; Humans; Lipid Peroxidation; Neuroprotective Agents; Oxidation-Reduction; Phytotherapy; Plants, Medicinal; Selegiline; Ubiquinone; Vitamin E

Topics: Ascorbic Acid; Catalase; Central Nervous System Diseases; Dopamine; Female; Free Radicals; Humans; Male; Oxidants; Parkinson Disease; Superoxide Dismutase; Vitamin E

Topics: Activities of Daily Living; Aged; Aging; Ascorbic Acid; Cachexia; Central Nervous System Diseases; Depression; Drug Combinations; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Nicotinic Acids; Paresthesia; Placebos; Pyridoxine; Riboflavin; Theobromine; Thiamine; Vitamin A; Vitamin E; Vitamins

The neuroprotective effects of W. somnifera were studied on stressed adult female Swiss albino rats. Experimental rats were subjected to immobilization stress for 14 h and were treated with a root powder extract of W. somnifera available as Stresscom capsules (Dabur India Ltd). Control rats were maintained in completely, non stressed conditions. Thionin stained serial coronal sections (7 microm) of brain passing through the hippocampal region of stressed rats (E(1) group) demonstrated 85% degenerating cells (dark cells and pyknotic cells) in the CA(2) and CA(3) sub-areas. Treatment with W. somnifera root powder extract significantly reduced (80%) the number of degenerating cells in both the areas. The study thus demonstrates the antistress neuroprotective effects of W. somnifera.

Topics: Animals; Ascorbic Acid; Central Nervous System Diseases; Female; Herbal Medicine; Hippocampus; Immobilization; Neurons; Neuroprotective Agents; Phytotherapy; Plant Extracts; Plant Roots; Rats; Solanaceae; Stress, Physiological

The ascorbic acid/dehydroascorbic acid system was analyzed in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 41 patients with different neurological disorders. The chi-square test of covariance analysis revealed in this sample significant differences in the CSF levels of total ascorbic acid when patients were classified by diagnostic categories. The population analyzed contained a group of 18 patients (back pain/sciatica group) in whom no overt neurological abnormalities were disclosed upon evaluation. Taking the CSF levels of total ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid in these patients as the reference (3.57 +/- 0.87 (SD)/100 ml and 0.53 +/- 0.19 mg/100 ml, respectively), it was found that head-traumatized patients showed a significant reduction in the concentration of total ascorbic acid in the CSF. CSF ascorbic acid levels were also significantly lower in patients with increased intracranial pressure (noninfected hydrocephalus group) and in patients with cerebral tumors. Although the CSF concentration of dehydroascorbic acid did not correspondingly increase over the reference values in these three groups of patients, the tendency existed for dehydroascorbic acid to represent in them a higher percentage of total ascorbic acid. After examining different alternatives, it is concluded that the hypothesis of free radical damage to the central nervous system after certain types of injury (trauma, ischemia, and tumors) may provide a satisfactory explanation of our findings. A rationale for the use of vitamin C in the management of some neurological patients is also derived from this work.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Ascorbic Acid; Central Nervous System Diseases; Child; Child, Preschool; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Dehydroascorbic Acid; Female; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged

The hypothesis that pathologic free-radical reactions are initiated and catalyzed in the major central nervous system (CNS) disorders has been further supported by the current acute spinal cord injury work that has demonstrated the appearance of specific, cholesterol free-radical oxidation products. The significance of these products is suggested by the fact that: (i) they increase with time after injury; (ii) their production is curtailed with a steroidal antioxidant; (iii) high antioxidant doses of the steroidal antioxidant which curtail the development of free-radical product prevent tissue degeneration and permit functional restoration. The role of pathologic free-radical reactions is also inferred from the loss of ascorbic acid, a principal CNS antioxidant, and of extractable cholesterol. These losses are also prevented by the steroidal antioxidant. This model system is among others in the CNS which offer distinctive opportunities to study, in vivo, the onset and progression of membrane damaging free-radical reactions within well-defined parameters of time, extent of tissue injury, correlation with changes in membrane enzymes, and correlation with readily measurable in vivo functions.

Topics: Animals; Ascorbic Acid; Cats; Central Nervous System Diseases; Chemical Phenomena; Chemistry; Cholesterol; Free Radicals; Methylprednisolone; Microcirculation; Oxidation-Reduction; Spinal Cord Injuries

Topics: Animals; Ascorbic Acid; Barbiturates; Central Nervous System Diseases; Dogs; Mice