Abstract

CONTIN, Mario; MARTINEFSKI, Manuela; LUCANGIOLI, Silvia  and  TRIPODI, Valeria. Miniaturized chromatographic system for determination of coenzyme Q10 in plasma, muscle and platelets. Acta bioquím. clín. latinoam. [online]. 2011, vol.45, n.2, pp.273-278. ISSN 0325-2957.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an essential component of the respiratory chain involved in cellular energy production. Moreover, it is considered a potent antioxidant that acts in the prevention of oxidative DNA, biological membrane and lipoprotein damage. Recently, it has been demonstrated that its deficiency is implicated in several diseases such as mitochondrial, heart and muscle diseases, cancer and during treatment with statins. Since CoQ10 therapy is beneficial in these diseases, their levels should be monitored during treatment. The determination of CoQ10 levels in deficiency diagnosis and post-treatment control is a major analytical challenge since it is a highly hydrophobic molecule that iseasily oxidized, and its endogenous concentration is extremely low even in control subjects. As a result, an analytical method with high sensitivity and an adequate sample preparation to avoid losses during processing must be used. Although CoQ10 is often analyzed in plasma, it has recently been shown that in some cases, plasma CoQ10 does not accurately reflect the intracellular concentration; and it would be necessary to determine it in other matrices such as platelets and muscle. In this paper, adequate sample preparations were determined for the determination of CoQ10 in plasma, platelets and muscle that require small quantities of sample using a miniaturized chromatographic analytical system, that is simple and has high sensitivity, precision and accuracy that will enable the diagnosis and monitoring of the diseases involving CoQ10 deficiency.

Keywords : Coenzyme Q10; Miniaturized chromatographic analytical system; Platelets; Muscle; Plasma.

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