Lipid peroxidation in brain tumors

There is a lot of evidence showing that lipid peroxidation plays very important role in development of various diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors. Lipid peroxidation is achieved by two main pathways, by enzymatic or by non-enzymatic oxidation, respectively. In this paper, we focus on non-enzymatic, self-catalyzed chain reaction of poly-unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) peroxidation generating reactive aldehydes, notably 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), which acts as second messenger of free radicals and as growth regulating factor. It might originate from astrocytes as well as from blood vessels, even within the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is in case of brain tumors transformed into the blood-brain-tumor barrier (BBTB). The functionality of the BBB is strongly affected by 4-HNE because it forms relatively stable protein adducts thus allowing the persistence and the spread of lipid peroxidation, as revealed by immunohistochemical findings. Because 4-HNE can act as a regulator of vital functions of normal and of malignant cells acting in the cell type- and concentration-dependent manners, the bioactivities of this product of lipid peroxidation be should further studied to reveal if it acts as a co-factor of carcinogenesis or as natural factor of defense against primary brain tumors and metastatic cancer.