TITLE:
Antioxidants: Friend or foe for tuberculosis patients
AUTHORS:
Rajasri Bhattacharyya, Dibyajyoti Banerjee
KEYWORDS:
Tuberculosis; Antioxidants; Reactive Oxygen Species; Clinical Trial; Mycobacterial tuberculosis
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.4 No.11A,
November
15,
2013
ABSTRACT: Respiratory burst induced
bacteria killing by oxidants are important mechanism of host defence. However,
it is impaired in tuberculosis due to inhibition of respiratory burst by
Mycobacterial factors. Antioxidants are compounds that cause chelation of
reactive oxygen species. So, antioxidants are expected to play a negative role
in the management of active tuberculosis. But, oxidative stress is a proved
fact that invariably happens in tuberculosis patients which is known to cause
immunosuppression. Immunosuppression in turn is expected to augment tuberculosis.
Hence, antioxidant supplementation is expected to benefit tuberculosis patients
by minimising oxidative stress induced immunosuppression. Therefore, the role of
antioxidants in tuberculosis appears to be paradoxical and urgent. Understanding
of the role of antioxidant supplementation in tuberculosis is warranted. It
is in this context that we have reviewed the recent literature and addressed
the problem for its solution.