A Simple and a Reliable Method to Quantify Antioxidant Activity In Vivo

Area of Science:

• Biogerontology
• Pharmacology
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Antioxidant compounds are crucial for mitigating reactive oxygen species and preventing age-related diseases.
• Assessing antioxidant capacity typically involves in vitro or indirect in vivo functional assays.
• Caenorhabditis elegans is a valuable in vivo model for aging research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, direct method for quantifying in vivo antioxidant activity.
• To establish a reliable screening tool for compounds with antioxidant properties in a living organism.
• To bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivo antioxidant assessments.

Main Methods:

• Development of a direct quantification method for internal antioxidant activity in vivo.
• Validation using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans.
• Testing with an aqueous green tea extract, a known antioxidant (positive control), and a non-antioxidant (negative control).

Main Results:

• The novel method successfully quantified antioxidant activity in vivo.
• EC50 values were determined: green tea extract (21.76 ± 1.28 µg/mL), positive control (8.50 ± 0.33 µg/mL), and negative control (>500 µg/mL).
• The results demonstrate the method's reliability and sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• A simple and reliable method for quantifying in vivo antioxidant activity in Caenorhabditis elegans has been established.
• This method serves as an effective preliminary screening tool, reducing the need for extensive in vitro and in vivo testing.
• The findings facilitate the design of future in vivo experiments and compound screening for antioxidant properties.