title: Therapeutic role of coenzyme Q(10) in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Mitochondrial dysfunction has been well established to occur in Parkinson's disease (PD) and appears to play a role in the pathogenesis of the disorder. A key component of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) is coenzyme Q(10), which not only serves as the electron acceptor for complexes I and II of the ETC but is also an antioxidant. In addition to being crucial to the bioenergetics of the cell, mitochondria play a central role in apoptotic cell death through a number of mechanisms, and coenzyme Q(10) can affect certain of these processes. Levels of coenzyme Q(10) have been reported to be decreased in blood and platelet mitochondria from PD patients. A number of preclinical studies in in vitro and in vivo models of PD have demonstrated that coenzyme Q(10) can protect the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. A phase II trial of coenzyme Q(10) in patients with early, untreated PD demonstrated a positive trend for coenzyme Q(10) to slow progressive disability that occurs in PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. cshults@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Clifford W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Shults
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D014451:Ubiquinone / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D014451:Ubiquinone