Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Feb 27, 2024; 16(2): 294-299
Published online Feb 27, 2024. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v16.i2.294
Anti-oxidative stress treatment and current clinical trials
Chun-Ye Zhang, Ming Yang
Chun-Ye Zhang, Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States
Ming Yang, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Author contributions: Zhang CY and Yang M designed the study, collected the data, and wrote, revised, and finalized the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ming Yang, DVM, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Missouri, 1030 Hitt Street, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. yangmin@health.missouri.edu
Received: November 2, 2023
Peer-review started: November 2, 2023
First decision: December 27, 2023
Revised: January 8, 2024
Accepted: February 5, 2024
Article in press: February 5, 2024
Published online: February 27, 2024
Processing time: 116 Days and 21 Hours
Abstract

Oxidative stress disturbs the balance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the detoxification biological process. It plays an important role in the development and progression of many chronic diseases. Upon exposure to oxidative stress or the inducers of ROS, the cellular nucleus undergoes some biological processes via different signaling pathways, such as stress adaption through the forkhead box O signaling pathway, inflammatory response through the IκB kinase/nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway, hypoxic response via the hypoxia-inducible factor/prolyl hydroxylase domain proteins pathway, DNA repair or apoptosis through the p53 signaling pathway, and antioxidant response through the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1/nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 signaling pathway. These processes are involved in many diseases. Therefore, oxidative stress has gained more attraction as a targeting process for disease treatment. Meanwhile, anti-oxidative stress agents have been widely explored in pre-clinical trials. However, only limited clinical trials are performed to evaluate the efficacy of anti-oxidative stress agents or antioxidants in diseases. In this letter, we further discuss the current clinical trials related to anti-oxidative stress treatment in different diseases. More pre-clinical studies and clinical trials are expected to use anti-oxidative stress strategies as disease treatment or dietary supplementation to improve disease treatment outcomes.

Keywords: Anti-oxidative stress treatment; Clinical trials; Drugs; Dietary invention; Reactive oxygen species

Core Tip: Oxidative stress disturbs the balance between the production and detoxification of reactive oxygen species, which is implicated in many diseases. Therefore, anti-oxidative stress agents have been widely explored to treat chronic and metabolic diseases. In this letter, we further discuss the current clinical trials related to anti-oxidative stress treatment and summarize current medicines under investigation.