Vitamin E and Alzheimer's Risk. A second study in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology shows that eating foods rich in vitamin E may help lower risks of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Ribose and Deoxyribose. The 5-carbon sugars ribose and deoxyribose are important components of nucleotides, and are found in RNA and DNA, respectively. The sugars found in nucleic acids are pentose sugars; a pentose sugar has five carbon atoms. A combination of a base and a sugar is called a nucleoside. Ribose, found in RNA, is a normal sugar, with one oxygen atom attached to each carbon atom. Deoxyribose, found in DNA, is a modified sugar, lacking one oxygen atom (hence the name deoxy).
Deoxyribose Sugar. The deoxyribose sugar forms part of the backbone of each DNA strand, which line up along the outside of the whole DNA molecule. If you visualize the double helix forming a twisted ladder, the sugar forms part of the sides of the ladder. Deoxyribose is known as a five-carbon sugar because its five carbon atoms form the base of each intersection of the ring, to which other atoms bond.