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Science 8 October 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5438, p. 197
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5438.197h
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This Week in Science
The overproduction of oxygen free radicals can damage cells and is associated with many diseases. These free radicals are normally removed in our bodies by the superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes. Salvemini et al. (p. 304; see the news story by Strauss) have synthesized a nonpeptidic manganese-based complex that is a functional mimetic of SODs and is stable in vivo. Injection of this compound into rodents in model studies of inflammation and ischemic injury protected the animals against tissue damage. This class of compounds may have therapeutic potential in diseases ranging from inflammation to cancer. The protection that SODs offer aerobic organisms is not appropriate for anaerobes because molecular oxygen is a product. Jenney et al. (p. 306; see the Perspective by Lloyd) purified a novel enzyme, superoxide reductase (SOR), from the hyperthermophilic anaerobe Pyrococcus furiosus. SOR reduces superoxide to hydrogen peroxide, which is then reduced to water by peroxidases. Genes encoding SOR homologs are found in most of the available anaerobic genome sequences but not in the genome sequences from aerobes.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
