Research Progress of Glutathione in the Prevention and Treatment of Diseases

Glutathione is a tripeptide composed of glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine, which plays essential roles in cell-protection, anti-oxidation, anti-aging, detoxification, etc. Glutathione almost exists in every cell of the human body. As a common clinical medicine, it is used for treating several kinds of diseases. Recent studies have shown that the changes of GSH level and GSH/GSSG proportion are closely related with diseases in locomotor, nervous, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems. The purpose of this review is to summarize the research progress of GSH in the prevention and treatment of diseases based on cell and animal experiments as well as clinical researches in recent six years so as to provide references for new drug development and clinical applications of glutathione.