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Coenzyme Q10/Ubiquinol/Ubiquinone: significance to HPPD?


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Ok bear with me on the lack of creativity in the title, I'm having a hangover. Nonetheless, I figured instead of posting a new topic for every single study, I'll cram a few studies into one topic. Now I think there's a general consensus that migraine, epilepsy, etc. are cross-referencable to HPPD's pathogenesis. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Open label trial of coenzyme Q10 as a migraine preventive

61.3% of patients had a greater than 50% reduction in number of days with migraine headache.
From this open label investigation coenzyme Q10 appears to be a good migraine preventive.

Source
 

The protective effects of CoQ10 are mainly attributed to its antioxidant properties and have shown notable assistance in the prevention of neurodegenerative and cardiac diseases

source: Coenzyme Q10 deficiency in adolescent migraine [PDF]
 

 

Some people believe that gene alterations can lie at the core of HPPD's pathogenesis, so this one's for you epigenetic fans!:

The core 1 protein of the ubiquinone cytochrome c reductase complex was significantly decreased and carbonic anhydrase I was significantly increased in the frontal cortex regions of individualswith depression.

source: Disease-specific alterations in frontal cortex brain proteins in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and MDD [PDF]
 
I have no clue how to go about interpreting the above statement, so if anyone can comment on the possible significance, feel free :)
 

 

Time for some epilepsy relations:

Other important contributors to epilepsy include oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction (Rahman 2012). Recent evidence indicates that supplementation with mitochondrial protectants like ubiquinol (CoQ10) and pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) can target these underlying pathological features of epilepsy and may complement the effects of conventional anti-epileptic drugs (Tawfik 2011; Stites 2006).

source: Life Extension

I know, it's an indirect source... I'll fix that later. I'm just really tired. I think I'm gonna lie down and dig up a little more on this later, this isn't going all too efficient.

Voila:
 

Our findings strongly suggest that CoQ10 can be considered a safe and effective adjuvant to phenytoin therapy in epilepsy both to ameliorate seizure severity and to protect against seizure-induced oxidative damage by reducing the cognitive impairment and oxidative stress associated with chronic use of phenytoin.

source

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Here's a post I made on this forum a while back:

 

This user over at the VS forum reported an improvement on double-vision based upon Coq10: http://thosewithvisu....com/topic/6319 - I don't know what type of double-vision he experienced and whether it was similar to our ghosting. Irrespective, upon further research, I also discovered that he had been taking statins which reduce CoQ10 and can have the side effect of double-vision, and that when he stopped taking statins his double vision resolved.

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Thanks Ghormeh!
I know the whole supplement road is paved with financial speedbumps, but it's not like I got anything better to spend my money on at the moment.
As always, I'm just throwing this out there for the community. I'll consider CoQ10 for in the future. It seems to be a supplement to improve overall health, and without any significant drug interactions, at the very least it'll do nothing you can directly notice.

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So here's some info on Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ):

 

In this study, we show that the essential nutrient pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ; 50 microM) regulates N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA; 10 microM) receptor activity primarily by reversing the increase in the frequency of openings of the receptor-associated ion channel

These results demonstrate that PQQ modulates the NMDA receptor by directly oxidizing its redox modulatory site.

source

 

See also:

These results suggest the possibility of a novel role for PQQ, PQQ-like substances, and quinone-containing proteins in the brain, and may represent a novel therapeutic approach for the amelioration of NMDA receptor-mediated neurotoxic injury.

source

Note that NMDA is also involed in/probably lies at the core of the pathogenesis of epilepsy:
 

Already two decades ago a study with DBA/2 mice (audiogenic seizure model) and AP-5 and AP-7 (NMDA glutamate site antagonists) showed that the NMDA-receptor is deeply involved in the initiation or spread of epileptic neuronal hyperactivity.

source: Antagonists and agonists at the glycine site of the NMDA receptor for therapeutic interventions [PDF]

 

I'll try to educate myself on NMDA/Glutamate soon. That same study links to Magnesium/NMDA relation studies. Sorry for not going all analytical on this one.

Aha! Here's the crème de la crème:
 

In vivo, PQQ decreased the duration of chemoconvulsant-induced seizures in rat pups with no effect on baseline behavior. Our results reveal endogenous potentiation of NMDAR function via mass reduction of redox sites as a novel mechanism that may enhance epileptogenesis and facilitate the transition to status epilepticus. The results further suggest that redox-active compounds may have therapeutic use by reversing NMDAR-mediated pathophysiology without blocking physiological NMDAR function.

source: Novel Role for the NMDA Receptor Redox Modulatory Site in the Pathophysiology of Seizures [PDF]
 

Pre-eclampsia study:

Supplementation with CoQ10 reduces the risk of developing pre-eclampsia in women at risk for the condition.

source

 

Furthermore, as cognitive deficits are common among HPPD'ers, see the following study:
 

“From these results, it is presumed that intake of PQQ-containing foods will improve some of high-level cerebral functions including attention and discriminating and processing abilities, and PQQ/CoQ10 will have more of this effect.”

“PQQ was found to improve not only immediate memory, but also other higher brain functions such as spatial awareness. The effects of PQQ were enhanced when the substance was used with CoQ10.”

source

 

Anyways, I'm just gonna press post here to see if I missed anything :)

So here's a quick calculation (Based on Life Extension brand, presuming your a member) 20mg PQQ with 300mg Ubiquinol per day would cost $30/30=$1 for PQQ, $42/20=$2.1 for Ubiquinol, so $3,10 per day. There's some deals when you buy more simultanuously, so theoretically you could have it even cheaper. It's indeed on the expensive side, but then again, so are the cigarettes I smoke. Perhaps a trade would be in place.

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