Abstract
All living cells of human body are involved in reduction-oxidation activities that are essential for cellular function. Many such processes, like mitochondrial respiration, monooxygenase, and oxidase activities, chemically reduce molecular oxygen to form reactive oxygen species resulting in a cellular oxidative stress that is considered as a fundamental mechanism underlying a number of neurological diseases. Antioxidants are endogenous or exogenous compounds that either reduce the formation of free radicals or react with and neutralize them, thus potentially protecting the cell from oxidative injury. Therapy aimed at boosting antioxidant defences or reducing pro-oxidant production with free radical scavengers may be efficacious in averting, ameliorating, or arresting many neurological diseases. This approach is receiving increasing attention in clinical neurology as well as in experimental studies which buttress the promising beneficial role of various antioxidant compounds in such disorders. However, the biochemistry of oxidative pathobiology is complex, and optimum antioxidant therapeutic options may vary and need to be tailored to individual diseases. Additionally, although evidence shows that antioxidant treatment results in cytoprotection, the potential clinical benefit deriving from both nutritional and supplemental antioxidants is still under wide debate. This review attempts to provide an insight into current published research to epitomize the use of free radical scavengers in the treatment of various neurological diseases.