School of Graduate Biomedical Pharmacology and Drug Development Program, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Centre for Biotechnology, Brock University, St. Catharines, L2S3A1, Ontario, Canada.
Free Radic Biol Med. 2023 Oct;207:178-180. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2023.06.029. Epub 2023 Jul 16.
This position paper opens a discussion forum of this Journal dedicated to a scientific debate on Vitamin E nomenclature. With this article we provide the scientific and medical communities with what we consider relevant information in favor of revising the nomenclature of vitamin E. To our knowledge, only RRR-α-tocopherol has been medically used to protect against a deficiency disease in humans, and therefore, it would be appropriate to restrict the term vitamin to this molecule. The direct demonstration of a vitamin function to other tocochromanols (including other tocopherols, tocotrienols and eventually tocomonoenols), has not yet been scientifically shown. In fact, the medical prescription of a molecule against the deficiency disease only because it has been included in the "Vitamin E family", but not tested as vitamin E, could lead to ineffective therapy and potentially dangerous consequences for patients. The idea of this revision launched during the recent 3rd Satellite Symposium on Vitamin E of the 2022 SFRR-Europe meeting, offers a open platform of discussion for the scientists involved in vitamin E research and scientific societies interested to this subject.
本立场文件开启了本刊的一个讨论论坛，专门就维生素 E 命名法进行科学辩论。通过本文，我们为科学界和医学界提供了我们认为相关的信息，以支持修订维生素 E 的命名法。据我们所知，只有 RRR-α-生育酚在医学上被用于预防人类的缺乏症，因此，将术语维生素限制在这种分子上是合适的。其他生育三烯酚醇（包括其他生育酚、生育三烯醇和最终的生育烯醇）对其他tocochromanols 的维生素功能的直接证明尚未得到科学证实。事实上，由于某种分子被包含在“维生素 E 家族”中，而没有被作为维生素 E 进行测试，就开处方用于治疗缺乏症，可能导致治疗无效，并对患者产生潜在的危险后果。在 2022 年 SFRR-欧洲会议的第三次维生素 E 卫星研讨会上提出的这一修订建议，为参与维生素 E 研究的科学家和对此主题感兴趣的科学协会提供了一个开放的讨论平台。
