Antioxidant therapy for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: Does it work?

Redox Biol. 2015 Dec:6:617-639. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2015.10.006. Epub 2015 Oct 23.

Abstract

Oxidative stress (OS) is considered as one of the etiologic factors involved in several signals and symptoms of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that include diarrhea, toxic megacolon and abdominal pain. This systematic review discusses approaches, challenges and perspectives into the use of nontraditional antioxidant therapy on IBD, including natural and synthetic compounds in both human and animal models. One hundred and thirty four papers were identified, of which only four were evaluated in humans. Some of the challenges identified in this review can shed light on this fact: lack of standardization of OS biomarkers, absence of safety data and clinical trials for the chemicals and biological molecules, as well as the fact that most of the compounds were not repeatedly tested in several situations, including acute and chronic colitis. This review hopes to stimulate researchers to become more involved in this fruitful area, to warrant investigation of novel, alternative and efficacious antioxidant-based therapies.

Keywords: Antioxidant therapy; Biomarkers; Complementary and alternative medicine; Crohn's disease; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Nutraceuticals; Oxidative stress; Ulcerative colitis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antioxidants / therapeutic use*
  • Humans
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / drug therapy*
  • Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / metabolism
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Antioxidants