Petkau conducted further experiments with simulated cells in 1976 and found that the enzyme Superoxide dismutase protected the cells from free radicals generated by ionizing radiation, obviating the effects seen in his earlier experiment.
Adaptogenic effect of some herbs may hold certain merit on account of the ability of the substances to increase the bodies own response to oxidative stress, such as gynostemma pentaphyllum or poor-man's ginseng, which has been shown to increase the body's innate response by increased production of superoxide dismutase (SOD).
One form of PBP is found to occur within patients that have a CuZn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) mutation.
Familial ALS: Apocynin extended the lives of mutant mice and reduced glial cell toxicity of cultured cells lines with a defective Superoxide Dismutase-1 (SOD1) gene -- a genetic defect found in some people with hereditary amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease).