Glutathione is a novel treatment for cystine stones

The present study evaluates and compares firstly the serum biomarkers of oxidative stress, superoxide dismutase (SOD), induced nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione oxidized and reduced, homocysteine (Hcy), and total antioxidant capacity (TAOC), and secondly computed tomography (CT) scans for 30 diagnosed cystinuric patients before and after taking glutathione or placebo. The levels of SOD were significantly higher in patients who took glutathione (0.25 ± 0.10 ng/ml) when compared with patients who took placebo (0.17 ± 0.07 ng/ml, p value 0.047). Similarly, the level of reduced glutathione was significantly lower in patients who took placebo (0.81 ± 0.53 pg/ml) compared to the level of reduced glutathione in patients who took glutathione (1.71 ± 0.43 pg/ml, p value 0.000). CT scans which were done for all patients before starting the supplements and after showed that patients who took glutathione over 3 months had no new stone formation and the size of the already presented stones was still the same or reduced, while those patients who took placebo for the same period developed new stones and the size of already presented stones increased.