MitoQ Information

[Paul Antonik Wakfer]

I have been doing some detailed work on researching this chemical with
a view to potentially getting it synthesized and taking it
supplementally. The most complete information about its relationship to
other ubiquinones with respect to the mitochondria is given in a recent
paper with free full text at:
http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/280/22/21295

The chief architect of this effort is Michael P Murphy. All
mitochondrially targeted chemicals that Murphy has made are synthesized
by attaching a triphenylphosphonium (TPP) cation to some standard
antioxidant in order to allow the new chemical to easily get through
the mitochondrial membrane, by actually being drawn in by the
electrical gradient so that it becomes several hundred-fold more
concentrated inside the mitochondria than in the cell outside. However,
what was not clear from the names Murphy has given his compounds is
that they are *not* a simple attachment of TPP to the standard
biological antioxidant.

MitoQ is in fact an attachment of TPP to the tail of idebenone, not to
CoQ10.
This is true even though Murphy often refers to mitoQ as mitoQ10. The
reason he can do that is because idebenone is a ubiquinone head
attached to a 10 carbon saturated tail, whereas CoQ10 is a ubiquinone
head group attached to a tail of 10 five-carbon isoprenoid units (which
is why CoQ10 is often called ubiquinone 50.

Furthermore, Mito Vit E is not an attachment of TPP to the end of the
tail of alpha tocopherol, but only to a two carbon saturated tail of
the chromanol head.

My problem with all these is first the misleading names (particularly
with mito Vit E) and second that major parts of the properties of these
standard chemicals come from the subtleties in the tail. The
biochemical properties of CoQ10 are very different from those of
idebenone, and the biochemical properties of alpha tocopherol are very
different from those of alpha tocotrienol (even though they are both
natural E vitamers and have the exact same chromanol head - which is
supposed to be the active antioxidant part) and surely will be very
different than the properties of a chromanol head attached to a 2
carbon tail.

Now it may well be that these mitochondrially targeted chemicals will
be very important for life extension purposes. In addition, if I had
some major medical dysfunction and one of these had been shown to be
theraputically helpful then I would take it for a while at least to
make me better. However, particularly since messing about with the
innards of the mitochondria is not something to be taken lightly, I
have decided to not pursue this quest until there is a longer term
animal study, human usage for a few years for some theraputic purpose,
and even a lifespan test in mice or rats.

--Paul Wakfer

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Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality
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[curious]

Paul Antonik Wakfer wrote:
> The most complete information about its relationship to
> other ubiquinones with respect to the mitochondria is given in a recent
> paper with free full text at:
> http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/280/22/21295

Thank you for posting this link. It made for a very complete and
interesting read. I do agree with most of your observations (which are
most defintively based on a much greater understanding then mine)
however i would like to encourage all to read the paper. I specifically
found the part about lipid peroxidation interesting.

See the referenced papers:
Kelso, G. F., Porteous, C. M., Coulter, C. V., Hughes, G., Porteous, W.
K., Ledgerwood, E. C., Smith, R. A., and Murphy, M. P. (2001) J. Biol.
Chem. 276, 4588–4596

Asin-Cayuela, J., Manas, A.-R. B., James, A. M., Smith, R. A., and
Murphy, M. P. (2004) FEBS Lett. 571, 9–16

Regards
Curious
--
I'll live forever or die trying