Chronic Inflammation and Chronic Diseases: Potential Healing with Glutathione‐Inspired Fragments

Abstract

AbstractGlutathione is one of the foremost human body antioxidant that enables him to cope with the oxidative stress and its by‐products. This compound is depleted by age, illness, viral infections, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome infections (SARS). Restoring its levels is therefore crucial to good health. Since its oral bioavailability is very poor, it is important to develop stable derivatives or fragments with improved antioxidant properties. The relationship between chronic inflammation, chronic diseases and oxidative stress is widely documented. Compounds that have high antioxidant activities arouse much interest as they could contribute to cope with detrimental health conditions because of oxidative stress, thus chronic inflammation. We synthesized some interesting glutathione‐inspired fragments from available starting materials and assessed their antioxidant power. Our compounds were analysed and identified by usual physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques. Their antioxidant activity was assessed using Diphenylpicrylhydrazine radical and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power assays. Our results showed interesting antioxidant activities IC50 values ranging from 1.35 mg/mL to 3.40 mg/mL, some among them with values (2.32 mg/mL) better than cysteine (IC50=3.025 mg/mL) (IC50=3.03), which is the best precursor of glutathione.