Timeless and Stainless Alcohol: Concentric Waves from Its Oxidative Metabolism and Related Oxidative Stress

作者：Riccardo Maccioni, Simone Tambaro, Laura Doro, Valentina Bassareo, Alessandra T. Peana, Elio Acquas · 发表于：Antioxidants · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3390/antiox15020216 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects、Alcoholism and Thiamine Deficiency、Autophagy in Disease and Therapy

Alcohol is a molecule whose multiple effects in living organisms exemplify how profound biological complexity can arise from an exceptionally simple chemical structure interacting with the cellular biochemical machinery. This review was conceived to provide an up-to-date synthesis of the current knowledge on the multifaceted consequences of alcohol oxidative metabolism and alcohol-derived oxidative stress, ranging from disruption of subcellular and cellular homeostasis to impairment of organ function. This study primarily focuses on the consequences of alcohol metabolism and on the mechanisms by which the rise of its main metabolite, acetaldehyde, and of reactive oxygen species (ROS), generates oxidative stress by-products and molecular adducts responsible for compromising cellular energy balance and antioxidant defense mechanisms. In particular, this review aims to provide an exhaustive representation of the mechanisms, causes, and consequences of alcohol oxidative metabolism: this is accomplished by taking into account alcohol-induced modifications of gene expression of cellular antioxidant determinants, the role of epigenetic mechanisms, and that of gene polymorphisms linked to alcohol-dependent oxidative stress and responsible for serious diseases such as, among others, alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. In addition, this review highlights the role of alcohol oxidative metabolism in the brain, which, in the acute setting, activates the dopaminer...