Scientists have identified an artificial antioxidant TEMPO which is said to be 100 times more powerful than nature's best. TEMPO can fight free radical activity and help prevent skin damage, onset of Alzheimer's, boost immunity etc. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules that are naturally present in the body and are natural part of our metabolism. But when our bodies have too many of these free radical chains, it can give rise to a bevy of problems. They can cause damage to cells and contribute to various diseases and conditions. Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with these extremely reactive free radicals and terminate their chain reaction.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The researchers are hoping that the findings may lead to the development of a pharmaceutical therapy to help prevent free radical damage.
The chemical defences against free radicals through vitamin C and vitamin E, are well known. But the researchers wanted to test the human-made anti-oxidant called TEMPO and its impact on the free radical activity.
For the study, researchers used a mimicked cell environment to test how effective TEMPO was in converting free radicals to non-harmful molecules compared to vitamin E. Incidentally; the findings revealed that the human-made TEMPO was up to 100 times faster at converting free radicals than vitamin E in fatty environments.
This could mean the doctors, physicians and pharmaceutical companies could see this articial antioxidant as effective means of protecting skin tissues, cell damage and other conditions that are triggered due to free radical damage.