Superoxide dismutase effect on irradiated central nervous system. About experimental pilot studies with rats

It has been observed that bovine superoxide dismutase (SOD) can reduce some chronic complications due to radiotherapy. For this reason this enzyme has been used in the rat to treat radiation induced encaphalitis, studied by the two-way avoidance test. SOD has allowed significant regression of troubles in two studies with chronic encephalitis and two studies with acute encephalitis. Moreover, another study has shown that SOD prevented cognitival troubles brought on by strong painful stimulus. Thus SOD has been shown able to improve cerebral performances after a specific aggression (after radiotherapy) or after a non specific one (after very painful stimulus). This observation leads to interesting prospects for therapy.