Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Forman, Henry Jay

Titel

Redox signaling: An evolution from free radicals to aging

Ist Teil von

• Free radical biology & medicine, 2016-08, Vol.97, p.398-407

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Redox biology has evolved from studies of the pathology that involves oxidants to an understanding of how oxidants participate in normal as well as aberrant signal transduction. Although the concept that signal transduction involved changes in the redox state dates from the 1930s, the modern history of redox biology began with the discovery of superoxide dismutase by McCord and Fridovich. The initial focus was on free radicals and damage of macromolecules, which remains an important topic. But, over time it was realized that hydroperoxides, especially H2O2 produced by NADPH oxidases, and electrophiles derived from lipid peroxidation or metabolism, played essential roles in physiologically relevant signaling. The mechanisms through which H2O2 and other electrophiles signal became an important area of study that provided insight into how these reactive molecules were involved in major signaling pathways and regulation of transcription factors. Thus, the field of redox signaling that is the overlap of signal transduction with redox biology was established. Alterations in redox signaling are observed in aging, but we also now know that redox signaling is essential in physiological homeostasis and that sustained deviation from redox homeostasis results in disease. This is a review of the history of redox biology from a personal perspective of nearly fifty years working in this field that hopefully provides some insights for the reader. •Free radical biology began with Szent-Gyorgyi and became modern with Fridovich.•First focus was damage and oxidative stress and sources, then alteration of signaling.•H2O2 is a second messenger used by peroxidases to oxidize signal protein thiolates.•Redox signaling pathways include tyrosine protein kinases and transcription factors.•Redox homeostasis involves Nrf2 activity, while aging causes decreased Nrf2 activation.