antioxidants Review Paraoxonase Role in Human Neurodegenerative Diseases Cadiele Oliana Reichert 1, Debora Levy 1 and Sergio P. Bydlowski 1,2,* 1 Lipids, Oxidation, and Cell Biology Group, Laboratory of Immunology (LIM19), Heart Institute (InCor), Hospital das Clínicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05403-900, Brazil;
[email protected] (C.O.R.);
[email protected] (D.L.) 2 Instituto Nacional de Ciencia e Tecnologia em Medicina Regenerativa (INCT-Regenera), CNPq, Rio de Janeiro 21941-902, Brazil * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The human body has biological redox systems capable of preventing or mitigating the damage caused by increased oxidative stress throughout life. One of them are the paraoxonase (PON) enzymes. The PONs genetic cluster is made up of three members (PON1, PON2, PON3) that share a structural homology, located adjacent to chromosome seven. The most studied enzyme is PON1, which is associated with high density lipoprotein (HDL), having paraoxonase, arylesterase and lactonase activities. Due to these characteristics, the enzyme PON1 has been associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Here we update the knowledge about the association of PON enzymes and their polymorphisms and the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Keywords: paraoxonases; oxidative stress; multiple sclerosis; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Alzhei- mer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease 1. Introduction Over the years, biotechnological changes and advances have guaranteed the popula- tion a significant increase in life expectancy that does not necessarily involve an increase in quality of life and/or having a healthy old age.