Coenzyme Q10 serum levels in Huntington's disease

J Neural Transm Suppl. 2004:(68):111-6. doi: 10.1007/978-3-7091-0579-5_13.

Abstract

Mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to the neurodegenerative process in Huntington's disease (HD). Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) enhances mitochondrial complex I activity and may therefore provide a therapeutic benefit in HD. We compared serum CoQ10 levels of previously untreated-and treated HD patients with those of healthy controls. CoQ10 did not significantly (ANCOVA F(dF 2, dF 55) = 2.57; p=0.086) differ between all three groups. However, the post hoc analysis showed no significant (p = 0.4) difference between treated HD patients ([CoQ10]: 88.12 [mean]+/-24.44 [SD], [range] 48.75-146.32 [pg/million platelets]) and controls (93.71+/-20.72, 65.31-157.94), however previously untreated HD patients (70.10+/-21.12, 38.67-106.14) had marked (p = 0.051) lower CoQ10 results than treated HD patients and controls (p = 0.017). Our results support that CoQ10 supplementation in HD patients may reduce impaired mitochondrial function in HD.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Coenzymes
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Huntington Disease / blood
  • Huntington Disease / drug therapy
  • Huntington Disease / enzymology*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Statistics, Nonparametric
  • Ubiquinone / analogs & derivatives*
  • Ubiquinone / blood*
  • Ubiquinone / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Coenzymes
  • Ubiquinone
  • coenzyme Q10