CoenzymeQ10 Protects Excitotoxicity:
These neurotoxins also lead to a major
cause of cell death in neurodegenerative disease called excitotoxicity.
The neurotransmitter glutamate normally transmits excitatory impulses.
In neurodegeneration the brain becomes chronically oversensitive to
glutamate, which then acts as a slow-acting “excitatory toxin” on brain
cells.
A seminal paper by NIH (National
Institutes of Health) scientists in 1988 proposed that excitotoxicity
develops when the energy level of neurons declines, and subsequent
research has borne out their theory. Studies show that Coenzyme Q10 protects
against excitotoxicity by raising neuronal energy levels. Italian
scientists discovered that Coenzyme Q10 protects neurons cultured in glutamate
from excitotoxicity. Beal’s group extended these findings to rats. They
gave the rats a neurotoxin (malonate) that induces excitotoxic brain
lesions. When the rats were fed Coenzyme Q10 in their chow for 10 days before
exposure to the toxin, lesions were reduced by 30%. Coenzyme Q10 also restored
energy production in the neurons to nearly normal levels.
Newly published research suggests that
Coenzyme Q10 can protect brain cells from neurotoxicity and excitotoxicity,
while even powerful antioxidants cannot. Coenzyme Q10 proved highly effective,
while simple antioxidants were ineffective, in protecting PC-12 cells
(neuron-like rat adrenal cells commonly used in neurobiological
research) from the excitotoxic effects of glutamate and from the
Parkinson’s disease-like effects of the neurotoxin MPP+. L-deprenyl (the
drug selegilene) also proved effective, though not as effective as
Coenzyme Q10. The scientists conclude that there may be “a greater role for
mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular energy than free radicals, in
both models of cell death. And, it seems that energy compromise plays a
large role in the progression of Parkinson’s disease” (Mazzio E et al.,
2001).
See References
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