Why do antioxidants fail to provide clinical benefit?

Description

The results of recent randomized trials to test the influence of antioxidants on coronary-event rates and prognosis in patients with coronary-artery disease were disappointing. In none of these studies did the use of vitamin E improve prognosis. In contrast, treatment of coronary-artery disease with angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduced coronary-event rates and improved prognosis. ACE inhibition prevents the formation of angiotensin II, which has been shown to be a potent stimulus of superoxide-producing enzymes in atherosclerosis. The findings suggest that inhibition of superoxide production at enzymatic levels, rather than symptomatic superoxide scavenging, may be the better choice of treatment.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC59596/

Tags

  • coronary-artery-disease
  • antioxidant-therapy
  • nih
  • ace-inhibitors
  • superoxide-production

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