Glutathione Peroxidase: A Potential Marker for the Most Common Diseases and Disorders

Oxidative stress is considered to be a prime cause of many diseases and is due to imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species and the body's ability to detoxify these reactive intermediates. Current research on oxidative stress is to evaluate the reasons for the imbalance between oxygen species and antioxidants. Free radicals are generated within the living organisms and are involved in various cellular activities. Increases in the concentration of free radicals result in oxidative damage. Different antioxidant protective mechanisms evolved in parallel, to protect organisms from the imbalance of oxidative stress. Glutathione peroxidase (GPx), plays an important role against oxidative stress and diseases. Different isoforms of this enzyme, either as monomeric or tetrameric forms, have been distributed in different organs, tissues or cellular compartments. In disease states, GPx expression either gets activated or diminished based on several proposed mechanisms. Thus, glutathione peroxidase may function as a marker for different diseases. In this review, we are focusing on the role and regulation of glutathione peroxidase in different diseases based on relevant patents.