New Method for Preventing Oxidative Damage to Cells: Findings Could Lead to Enhanced Health Supplements, Progress on Parkinson's

The discovery by UCLA biochemists of a new method for preventing oxidation in the essential fatty acids of cell membranes could lead to a new class of more effective nutritional supplements and potentially help combat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and perhaps Alzheimer's.

The research is published in the online edition of the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, a major source for research on oxidative stress, and is scheduled for publication in a 2011 print edition.

In the research, Clarke and her colleagues show that polyunsaturated fatty acids can be strengthened by replacing their most vulnerable hydrogen atoms, which are easily stripped away, with much more stable deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with one extra neutron. The result is the creation of a fatty acid that serves the same function as its predecessor, but without the same susceptibility to oxidation.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101202124620.htm