Strong antioxidant
Carnosine is an antioxidant, that stabilizes and protects cell membranes.
Specifically, as a water-soluble antioxidant, carnosine prevents lipid peroxidation within the cell (two-layer) membrane. Many antioxidants (such as vitamin C and E) protect tissues before entering into them, but these antioxidants have only a small effect when this first protection line is broken. Free radicals then cause the so called 'oxidative stress'. Carnosine generally reacts with all reactive oxygen species (ROS), and thus prevents oxidative stress development. However, carnosine is not only preventive - it is also active against ROS, creating dangerous compounds - lipid peroxides and its secondary products. It means that carnosine protects the tissue in the “second line” . For example, the lipid peroxidation product, malondialdehyde (MDA), is blocked by carnosine. MDA, if not disposed of, can cause lipid, enzyme and DNA damage, it plays a significant role in atherosclerosis development, inflammatory and degenerative joint processes, cataract development and the aging process in general. Carnosine by its reaction and inactivation of MDA is sacrificed for the benefit of amino acid protection in protein molecules. The ability of reducing concentrations of the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances TBARS is quite an unusual antioxidant feature of carnosine. Carnosine is a substance that protects and prolongs the functional lifecycle of key organism building units - proteins, DNA and lipids - and can be quite seriously marked as a longevity substance.
In addition, carnosine also protects biological tissue against oxidation - against the reaction with aldehyde products of lipid oxidation that form adducts with DNA, proteins, enzymes a lipoproteines causing harmful biological changes.
The oxidative stress and stress trauma are associated with the decreasing level in the concentration of carnosine, which explains the increased elderly mortality rate after stressful incidents. Therefore, it is especially important that the elderly have a sufficient level of antioxidative protection, which is key to maintaining a good healthly condition.
The anti-aging carnosine properties are not only a matter of its antioxidant properties. Another mechanism of cell protection against oxidative stress is a chelating ability of carnosine, as explained by prof. Bruca N. Ames, UCLA.
