Abstract:

In recent century, the advancing age and increased lifespan of the world’s population have led to a significant increase in the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases that are a major cause of disability and death for most of those affected. These findings put the neurodegeneration as a major public health problem in modern society also because effective pharmacological interventions for prevention and treatment of the disease, are lacking. Based on the premise that oxidative stress underlies a number of neurodegenerative diseases, the identification of novel antioxidants as potential therapeutics is a prolific area of neuroscience research. In fact, although the different neurodegenerative diseases manifest in distinct neuronal cell types, oxidative stress and suppression of neuronal survival signals are common to many of these pathological conditions and appear to be highly relevant targets for treatment. Growing evidences suggest that at the pathological level, almost all neurodegenerative diseases share common features such as the iron accumulation and the generation of misfolded protein deposits. Furthermore, it was shown that the oxidative stress markers precede the pathological lesions of neurodegeneration