Antioxidant Defense System: Regulation of Metabolic Processes, Genetic Determinants, and Methods of Determination

An increase in the activity of free radical oxidation is considered as a nonspecific process characteristic of the pathogenesis of various diseases accompanied by antioxidant deficiency. Being bioregulators capable of increasing protective forces, antioxidants are important links in a multistage system of regulation and coordination of various body functions. The structure and function of enzymes involved in the regulation of oxidative stress can be significantly affected by genetic polymorphisms. To date, the role of genes encoding the activity of enzymes of the antioxidant system in the pathogenesis of many diseases remains unexplored, which is of great interest to researchers from various fields. The article presents an overview and analysis of the data of modern scientific literature on the study of the role of antioxidant defense components in the regulation of metabolic processes, their genetic determinants, and generalized data on modern methods for the determination of some antioxidants. While writing the review, the database of the scientific electronic library eLibrary was used, with the keywords being “oxidative stress,” “free radical oxidation,” “antioxidant protection,” “antioxidants,” “antioxidant enzymes,” “enzyme genes,” “antioxidant-responsive element,” and “research methods”; the filters were years of publication of 2012–2022, publications with full text, and publications available for viewing, as well as an English-language database of medical and biological publications created by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), with the keywords “free radical oxidation,” “antioxidant protection,” “antioxidants,” “antioxidant enzymes,” “enzyme genes,” “oxidative stress,” “metabolism,” and “methods.”