ubiquinone and Endocrine-System-Diseases

Mitochondrial disorders are a heterogeneous group of disorders resulting from primary dysfunction of the respiratory chain. Muscle tissue is highly metabolically active, and therefore myopathy is a common element of the clinical presentation of these disorders, although this may be overshadowed by central neurological features. This review is aimed at a general medical and neurologist readership and provides a clinical approach to the recognition, investigation, and treatment of mitochondrial myopathies. Emphasis is placed on practical management considerations while including some recent updates in the field.

Topics: Biopsy; Cytochrome-c Oxidase Deficiency; Deglutition Disorders; Dietary Supplements; Endocrine System Diseases; Exercise Test; Exercise Therapy; Hearing Disorders; Heart Diseases; Humans; Mitochondrial Myopathies; Muscle, Skeletal; Ubiquinone; Vision Disorders; Vitamins

Coenzyme Q(10) (CoQ(10)), also known as ubiquinone for its presence in all body cells, is an essential part of the cell energy-producing system. However, it is also a powerful lipophilic antioxidant protecting lipoproteins and cell membranes. Due to these two actions, CoQ(10) is commonly used in clinical practice in chronic heart failure, male infertility, and neurodegenerative disease. However, it is also taken as an anti-aging substance by healthy people aiming for long-term neuroprotection and by sportsmen to improve endurance. Many hormones are known to be involved in body energy regulation, in terms of production, consumption and dissipation, and their influence on CoQ(10) body content or blood values may represent an important pathophysiological mechanism. We summarize the main findings of the literature about the link between hormonal systems and circulating CoQ(10) levels. In particular the role of thyroid hormones, directly involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis, is discussed. There is also a link with gonadal and adrenal hormones, partially due to the common biosynthetic pathway with CoQ(10), but also to the increased oxidative stress found in hypogonadism and hypoadrenalism.

Topics: Adrenal Cortex Hormones; Endocrine System Diseases; Gonadal Hormones; Humans; Thyroid Hormones; Ubiquinone

Though affecting many thousands of patients, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) should be considered an orphan disease, since the cause remains elusive and no treatment is available that can provide complete cure. There is reasonable insight into the pathogenesis of signs and symptoms, and treatments specifically directed to immunological, inflammatory and metabolic processes offer relief to an increasing number of patients. Particular attention is given to the importance of co-morbidity requiring appropriate therapy. Promising results are obtained by treatment with Metformin, or possibly Momordica charantia extract, which will correct insulin resistance, with Meldonium improving the transportation of glucose into the mitochondria, with sodium dichloroacetate activating pyruvate dehydrogenase, and with nutraceutical support reducing oxidative and inflammatory impairment.

Topics: Adult; Animals; Antiviral Agents; Autoimmune Diseases; Comorbidity; Dichloroacetic Acid; Dietary Supplements; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Drug Therapy, Combination; Endocrine System Diseases; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic; Female; Humans; Infections; Insulin Resistance; Male; Mental Disorders; Methylhydrazines; Middle Aged; Mitochondria; Neuroimaging; Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex; Severity of Illness Index; Thiamine; Thioctic Acid; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; Ubiquinone