Tier 3 — preclinical

The Plasma Bioavailability of Coenzyme Q10 Absorbed from the Gut and the Oral Mucosa

Luis Vitetta, Andrea Leong, Joyce Zhou, Serena Dal Forno, Sean Hall, David Rutolo
Journal of Functional Biomaterials 2018 9(4):73

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 30558322
PubMed Central
PMC6306788
DOI
10.3390/jfb9040073
Funding
The acknowledgments state that Luis Vitetta received competitive funding from the National Institute of Complementary Medicine and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, as well as industry support for nutraceutical and herbal-medicine research; the paper does not clearly identify a study-specific commercial sponsor for this comparison.
Competing interests
The authors stated that they participated in Medlab Clinical's nanoparticle delivery technology research and declared no further conflicts relevant to the manuscript.

Study snapshot

DesignBlinded sequential comparative formulation study with washouts
ModelHealthy adult volunteers
Sample11 (6 men, 5 women)
InterventionThree commercial CoQ10 formulations: 150 mg ubiquinol capsule, 150 mg ubiquinone capsule, and liposomal ubiquinone delivered by oral pump; each participant received all formulations with three-week washouts
DurationComparative testing across approximately six weeks, with acute plasma sampling over 6 hours after each formulation and three-week washouts
EndpointsPlasma CoQ10 over 6 hours; Between-formulation absorption; Inter-individual variability; Oral-mucosal/liposomal delivery performance

What the study showed, in plain terms

Eleven adults sequentially tested three commercial CoQ10 products while blinded to the supplier and chemical form: a 150 mg ubiquinol capsule, a 150 mg ubiquinone capsule, and a liposomal ubiquinone preparation.

Plasma responses varied substantially between individuals. Ubiquinol showed a numerically higher two-hour plasma response than the capsule comparator, but the difference was not statistically significant. The liposomal preparation performed worst and did not demonstrate an oral-mucosal bioavailability advantage.

This study supports the broader conclusion that CoQ10 absorption is highly formulation- and person-dependent; it does not establish a universal redox-form winner.

Key findings

Inter-subject plasma CoQ10 responses were highly variable across all three formulations.

The ubiquinol capsule produced a numerically higher two-hour plasma response than the ubiquinone capsule, but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05).

The liposomal ubiquinone preparation had the poorest bioavailability and did not support a claimed oral-mucosal/sublingual delivery advantage.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Only 11 participants were studied, and the authors explicitly state that the experiment was not designed as a full pharmacokinetic study.

The products differed in dose and delivery platform, limiting clean attribution of any difference to redox form alone.

Authors participated in Medlab Clinical nanoparticle-delivery research, which is relevant when interpreting the liposomal-delivery findings.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability Dr. Abdulla Mostafa, PhDCellular Senescence, Neurological, Mitochondrial & Brain-Ageing Biology