Animal and human studies with the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ

Abstract

As mitochondrial oxidative damage contributes to a wide range of human diseases, antioxidants designed to be accumulated by mitochondria in vivo have been developed. The most extensively studied of these mitochondria-targeted antioxidants is MitoQ, which contains the antioxidant quinone moiety covalently attached to a lipophilic triphenylphosphonium cation. MitoQ has now been used in a range of in vivo studies in rats and mice and in two phase II human trials. Here, we review what has been learned from these animal and human studies with MitoQ. © 2010 New York Academy of Sciences.