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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Microbes
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1504831
Coenzyme Q10 modulates the immunity by enhancing mononuclear macrophage, NK cell activity, and regulating gut microbiota
Provisionally accepted- 1 Qilu Medical University, Zibo City, Shandong, China
- 2 Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an important fat-soluble, bioactive molecule that predominantly found in the inner mitochondrial membrane, is widely used in functional food and health food raw materials, which has garnered considerable attention due to its potential role in immunoregulation. However, the intrinsic mechanism of CoQ10 on immunity, and the relationship to the gut microbiota have not been elucidated. Here, we conducted a series of in vivo experiments with the aim of comprehensively exploring the effect of CoQ10 on both cellular and humoral immune functions, and on gut microbiota communities in mice. CoQ10 showed negligible impact on both mouse body weight fluctuations and tissue indices, but enhanced the mouse body immunity by elevating the carbon clearance ability and natural killer (NK) cellular viability. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that administration of CoQ10 modulated the structure and composition of the gut microbiota in mice, notably by enhancing the abundance of Lactobacillus, Limosilactobacillus, and decreasing the abundance of Paramuribaculum species. This work makes a contribution to the application of CoQ10 as an immunomodulator in the biological, pharmaceutical and health care product industries.
Keywords: coenzyme Q10, Immunity, carbon clearance ability, Natural Killer cells, Gut Microbiota
Received: 01 Oct 2024; Accepted: 04 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liang, Han, Xiao, Su, Bao, Ji, Jia and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Longgang Jia, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.