Research & Development

Open job offer

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Dr. Catarina Quinzii is looking to hire a postdoctoral researcher to work in her lab.  The research project offered are below:

POSTDOCTORAL POSITION AVAILABLE

For further details please contact 

To apply please send a CV including a statement of research interests and names of 2 references to: Catarina M Quinzii (cmq2101@columbia.edu), by February 29, 2020. Selected applicants will be invited to an interview in person or via Skype. Candidates will be informed about the selection by March 2020 with a projected June 2020 start date. The selected candidate must submit the necessary documents to Columbia University. Foreign applicants are encouraged to apply early to ensure adequate time to obtain visas

Coenzyme Q10 and Degenerative Disorders Affecting Longevity: An Overview 3

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Coenzyme Q10 and Degenerative Disorders Affecting Longevity: An Overview

Abstract: Longevity is determined by a number of factors, including genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. A major factor affecting longevity is the development of degenerative disorders such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease and liver disease, particularly where these occur as co-morbidities. In this article, we review the potential role of supplementation with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) for the prevention or management of these disorders. Thus, randomised controlled clinical trials have shown supplementation with CoQ10 or CoQ10 plus selenium reduces mortality by approximately 50% in patients with cardiovascular disease, or in the normal elderly population, respectively. Similarly, CoQ10 supplementation improves glycaemic control and vascular dysfunction in type II diabetes, improves renal function in patients with chronic kidney disease, and reduces liver inflammation in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The beneficial role of supplemental CoQ10 in the above disorders is considered to result from a combination of its roles in cellular energy generation, as an antioxidant and as an anti-inflammatory agent.

Keywords: coenzyme Q10; oxidative stress; inflammation; diabetes; cardiovascular disease; chronic kidney disease and liver disease; mitochondria

Full Study

Coenzyme Q10 Supplementation in Aging and Disease

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Coenzyme Q10 Supplementation in Aging and Disease

Coenzyme Q (CoQ) is an essential component of the mitochondrial electron transport chain and an antioxidant in plasma membranes and lipoproteins. It is endogenously produced in all cells by a highly regulated pathway that involves a mitochondrial multiprotein complex. Defects in either the structural and/or regulatory components of CoQ complex or in non-CoQ biosynthetic mitochondrial proteins can result in a decrease in CoQ concentration and/or an increase in oxidative stress. Besides CoQ10 deficiency syndrome and aging, there are chronic diseases in which lower levels of CoQ10 are detected in tissues and organs providing the hypothesis that CoQ10 supplementation could alleviate aging symptoms and/or retard the onset of these diseases. Here, we review the current knowledge of CoQ10 biosynthesis and primary CoQ10 deficiency syndrome, and have collected published results from clinical trials based on CoQ10 supplementation. There is evidence that supplementation positively affects mitochondrial deficiency syndrome and the symptoms of aging based mainly on improvements in bioenergetics. Cardiovascular disease and inflammation are alleviated by the antioxidant effect of CoQ10. There is a need for further studies and clinical trials involving a greater number of participants undergoing longer treatments in order to assess the benefits of CoQ10 treatment in metabolic syndrome and diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, kidney diseases, and human fertility.

Full Study

Bioavailability of coenzyme Q10 supplements depends on carrier lipids and solubilization 2

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Bioavailability of coenzyme Q10 supplements depends on carrier lipids and solubilization

Objectives: Bioavailability of supplements with coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) in humans seems to depend on the excipients of formulations and on physiological characteristics of the individuals. The aim of this study was to determine which factors presented in CoQ10 supplements affect the different response to CoQ10 in humans.

Methods: We tested seven different supplement formulations containing 100 mg of CoQ10 in 14 young, healthy individuals. Bioavailability was measured as area under the curve of plasma CoQ10 levels over 48 h after ingestion of a single dose. Measurements were repeated in the same group of 14 volunteers in a dou- ble-blind crossover design with a minimum of 4 wk washout between intakes.

Results: Bioavailability of the formulations showed large differences that were statistically significant. The two best absorbable formulations were soft-gel capsules containing ubiquinone (oxidized CoQ10) or ubiqui- nol (reduced CoQ10). The matrix used to dissolve CoQ10 and the proportion and addition of preservatives such as vitamin C affected the bioavailability of CoQ10. Although control measurements documented that all formulations contained 100 mg of either CoQ10 or ubiquinol, some of the participants showed high and others lower capacity to reach high increase of CoQ10 in blood, indicating the participation of individual unknown physiological factors.

Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of individually adapted selection of best formulations to reach the highest bioavailability of CoQ10 in humans.

Full Study

Q-symbio: Sensational treatment of heart disease with ubiquinone 2

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Journal of the American College of Cardiology has recently released an article on the so-called Q-symbio study providing strong evidence that a daily supplement of coenzyme Q10 can almost halve the risk of major cardiac events (MACE). These results were obtained using the well documented Myoqinon Q10 (Bio-Quinone GOLD) which is the oxidized form of Q10 in an oil solution, and NOT the reduced form of Q10 called ubiquinol or QH. Now, try to compare such a result with the results from all other treatments of heart disease, and you will understand why this scientific study has attracted so much attention worldwide.

Source: http://www.q-symbio.com

“Recharging” an energy-starved heart

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Coenzyme Q10 can restore quality of life in patients with chronic heart failure.

 

Several published studies show that patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) benefit from taking supplements of the vitamin-like compound coenzyme Q10. The treatment enables their heart muscle to contract with greater force, their exercise tolerance increases, and they can generally enjoy life in a different way because they are less likely to feel the limitations of their condition.

CHF patients are normally categorized according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification (see below), which places patients in one of four groups based on how limited they are during physical activity (in terms of breathing, shortness of breath, chest pain etc.

There are documented examples of CHF patients who have improved 1-2 NYHA classes as a result of receiving coenzyme Q10 supplementation in the range of 100-300 mg/day.

 

Source.:

 

 

NYHA Class                                      Symptom description

I          No symptoms and no limitations in ordinary physical activity, e.g. shortness of breath when walking, climbing stairs, etc.

II         Mild symptoms (mild shortness of breath and/or angina) and slight limitation during ordinary activity

II         Marked limitation in activity due to symptoms, even during less-than-ordinary activity, e.g. walking short distances (20-100 meters). Comfortable only at rest.

IV       Severe limitations. Experience symptoms even while at rest. Mostly bed-bound patients.

 

(Reference: The Criteria Committee of the New York Heart Association. Nomenclature and Criteria for Diagnosis of Diseases of the Heart and Great Vessels. 9th ed. Boston, Mass: Little, Brown & Co; 1994:253-256.)

New treatment helps heart patients survive

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People with chronic heart failure have 43 % lower risk of dying if they take supplements of a natural compound called coenzyme Q10, according to a large international heart study that was published recently.

 

Improved survival, reduced need for heart transplants and hospitalization, and potential savings on healthcare expenditure could be some of the advantages of treating chronic heart failure patients with a natural compound called coenzyme Q10. Q-Symbio is the name of a groundbreaking international heart study that was led by Danish researchers and published online in the October issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, HEART FAILURE, one of the world’s most frequently cited cardiology journals. The results showed that daily supplementation with coenzyme Q10 reduces all-cause mortality by 43%.

  “I definitely think that the results we have seen are extremely positive and promising. In fact, I would extend that to saying that with this new therapy form, we are looking at a shift of paradigm in the treatment of chronic heart failure,“ says lead investigator, Chief Physician, MD, Svend Aage Mortensen from the Heart Center at Copenhagen University Hospital.

 

Safe and money-saving

In addition to lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, chronic heart failure patients who took coenzyme Q10 had fewer hospitalizations due to heart failure and fewer side effects than patients who were given identical dummy capsules (placebo). Based on the outcome of Q-Symbio, coenzyme Q10 appears to be a safe and seemingly effective therapy with the potential to become a future adjuvant to conventional drug therapy used in heart failure. This could lead to cuts in health care costs.

 

Largest study of Q10

The study, a double-blind, randomized trial of 420 chronic heart failure patients with severe heart failure recruited from nine different countries, is the largest placebo-controlled study of coenzyme Q10 and has already created quite an interest among cardiologists worldwide.

“Conventional heart failure therapy focuses on inhibiting various hormonal factors that are predominant in heart failure and which strain the heart. With coenzyme Q10, on the other hand, you support cellular processes that relate to the energy metabolism. This provides extra strength to the failing heart muscle,” Dr. Mortensen explains.  

  “Results with other heart-stimulating drugs used in the treatment of heart failure have been disappointing,” he adds.

 

 

300 mg daily

Initiated in 2003, the Q-Symbio study aimed at investigating how long it took before the participants in the treatment group and the placebo group encountered heart problems defined as unplanned hospitalizations due to heart failure, fatal heart attack, need for cardiac transplantation, or need for a heart-lung machine. All patients were randomly assigned to treatment with either soft gelatin capsules with CoQ10 (one 100 mg capsule three times daily) or identical placebo, which was given in addition to their prescribed regimen of conventional heart failure medicine.

 

Energy for the heart 

What makes CoQ10 therapy so interesting is that it is a compound which the body is able to synthesize itself and depends on for normal cellular energy turnover. Chronic heart failure is characterized by energy starvation of the heart caused by depleted levels of CoQ10 in cardiac tissue.

  “Other heart failure medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have side effects,” Dr. Mortensen noted. “Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy-starved heart.”

 

Source: Journal of the American College of Cardiology