Monday, March 8, 2021

Coenzyme Q10 Analogues: Benefits and Challenges for Therapeutics

Suárez-Rivero JM, Pastor-Maldonado CJ, Povea-Cabello S, Álvarez-Córdoba M, Villalón-García I, Munuera-Cabeza M, Suárez-Carrillo A, Talaverón-Rey M, Sánchez-Alcázar JA.; Antioxidants. 2021; 10(2):236. doi:10.3390/antiox10020236

  Over the past few years, a wide variety of CoQ10 analogues with improved properties have been developed. These analogues conserve the antioxidant features of CoQ10 but present upgraded characteristics such as water solubility or enhanced mitochondrial accumulation. Moreover, recent studies have proven that some of these analogues might even outperform CoQ10 in the treatment of certain specific diseases. The aim of this review is to provide detailed information about these Coenzyme Q10 analogues, as well as their functionality and medical applications.


This synthetic quinone stands out for its efficacy as a treatment for Friedreich ataxia (FRDA). From 1990 and up to the present, several clinical trials have tested the impact of Idebenone supplementation on patients of FRDA. These studies have proven that the quinone ameliorates patients’ conditions through the improvement of neurological function (reduced general weakness, improvement in fine movement and speech, and decreased difficulty in swallowing) [49] and cardiac hypertrophy (reduction in interventricular septal wall thickness, left ventricular posterior wall thickness, or left ventricular mass index) [50,51]. Idebenone has been widely tested in clinical trials for several years. Its main relevance is in FRDA