CHAPTER 8: Antioxidant Therapy of Aging: From Free Radical Chemistry to Systems Theory of Reliability

The systems approach, based on engineering theory of reliability, integrates the concept of aging program and the free-radical theory of aging in the unified pattern. From the systems reliability standpoint, aging is a stochastic consequence of genetically preset limits of bioreliability at all functional levels, from biomolecular nanoreactors to the organism as a whole. The stochastic malfunctions of the mitochondrial electron transport nanoreactors, which produce the oxygen anion-radicals (“superoxides”) as by-products of respiration, seem to be of first importance. The free-radical redox-timer, located presumably in specialized neurons of central nervous system, serves as the effective stochastic mechanism of realization of the preset deficiency in bioreliability. As a consequence, oxidative-stress products and other metabolic slag accumulate with the resulting impetus to autophagic or apoptotic cell death accompanied with age-associated clinical disorders. Some antioxidants, synthetic and natural ones, extend the life span of animals when added to food or drinking water. However, the rate constants and concentrations of the so-called antioxidants are small to compete with the antioxidant enzymes for reactive oxygen species (ROS). The antioxidants provide a preventive protection against ROS, i.e. prophylactic maintenance via the organism’s neuro-hormonal system and/or microbiota. Thus, the systems reliability approach serves as heuristic methodology in searching realistic mechanisms of aging and anti-aging therapy.