Oxidative stress profiling: part II. Theory, technology, and practice

Many of the most serious human diseases have a strong association with the steady-state level of oxidative damage in tissues. On an individual level this damage is defined as the patient's oxidative stress status (OSS). OSS is associated with many of the major age-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as with the aging process itself. In general, the greater the OSS of the individual, the higher the risk for disease development. To further understand the role that OSS has as a causative or an associated factor for these diseases, and to develop more effective personalized therapy to minimize OSS, requires a reliable means to measure the many different components contributing to an individual's OSS. This procedure is called oxidative stress profiling (OSP) and represents a new strategy to simultaneously assess an individual's OSS as well as to identify key physiological parameters, such as the hormone, lipid, antioxidant, or iron profile, that may be responsible for that individual's OSS. The OSP strategy provides physicians with information that enable them to make a more accurate diagnosis of the patient's condition and to recommend specific types of therapy based on better scientific data. Follow-up studies of the patient would then be conducted using these same tests until the OSS of the patient has been minimized. The OSP strategy is particularly well suited for a personalized health optimization program. The procedure is based on measuring both the steady-state levels of oxidative damage in nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids and the protective and defense processes of these components using blood, urine, and breath samples. Testing individuals before and after a controlled amount of exercise (70% VO2) may also help to obtain greater sensitivity and reproducibility. Evaluation of test results to obtain an integrated calculated OSS result for a patient represents a major challenge. One approach is to present the test results on a percentile bases, allowing results of different tests to be integrated into one or a few parameters, such as an oxidative stress and an antioxidant index. This article presents a general overview and rationale of the concept of the oxidative stress profile, tests to be used, and examples of how it may be applied.