Approaches for Reactive Oxygen Species and Oxidative Stress Quantification in Epilepsy

Oxidative stress (OS) and excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production have been implicated in many neurological pathologies, including acute seizures and epilepsy. Seizure-induced damage has been demonstrated both in vitro and in several in vivo seizure and epilepsy models by direct determination of ROS, and by measuring indirect markers of OS. In this manuscript, we review the current reliable methods for quantifying ROS-related and OS-related markers in pre-clinical and clinical epilepsy studies. We first provide pieces of evidence for the involvement of different sources of ROS in epilepsy. We then discuss general methods and assays used for the ROS measurements, mainly superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite, and hydroxyl radical in in vitro and in vivo studies. In addition, we discuss the role of these ROS and markers of oxidative injury in acute seizures and epilepsy pre-clinical studies. The indirect detection of secondary products of ROS such as measurements of DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, and protein oxidation will also be discussed. This review also discusses reliable methods for the assessment of ROS, OS markers, and their by-products in epilepsy clinical studies.