Coenzyme Q10 serum levels in Huntington's disease

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 mitocnondrial function in HD.