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The efficacy and safety of coenzyme Q10 in Parkinson’s disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

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Abstract

The objective of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients in order to arrive at qualitative and quantitative conclusions about the efficacy of CoQ10. Databases searched included PubMed, Google scholar, CNKI, Wan-Fang, and the Cochrane Library from inception to March 2016. We only included sham-controlled, randomized clinical trials of CoQ10 intervention for motor dysfunction in patients with PD. Relevant measures were extracted independently by two investigators. Weighted mean differences (WMD) were calculated with random-effects models. Eight studies with a total of 899 patients were included. Random-effects analysis revealed a pooled WMD of 1.02, indicating no significant difference when CoQ10 treatment compared with placebo in terms of UPDRS part 3 (p = 0.54). Meanwhile, the effect size of UPDRS part 1, UPDRS part 2, and total UPDRS scores were similar in CoQ10 group with in placebo group (p > 0.05). Moreover, we found CoQ10 was well tolerated compared with placebo group. Subgroup analysis showed that the effect size of CoQ10 in monocentric studies was larger than in multicenter studies. Using the GRADE criteria, we characterized the quality of evidence presented in this meta-analysis as moderate to high level. The current meta-analysis provided evidence that CoQ10 was safe and well tolerated in participants with PD and no superior to placebo in terms of motor symptoms. According to these results, we cannot recommend CoQ10 for the routine treatment of PD right now.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Prof Jie Chen from Wenzhou Medical University for his help in guiding and revising the manuscript.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325000, China

      Zhen-Guo Zhu, Wan-Li Zhang & Cheng-Long Xie

    2. Department of Pediatric Emergency, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China

      Yi-Mei Jin

    3. The Center of Rehabilitation, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 35000, China

      Miao-Xuan Sun

    4. The Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325027, China

      Wen-Wen Wang

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    1. Zhen-Guo Zhu
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    Correspondence to Yi-Mei Jin or Cheng-Long Xie.

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    The study was supported by the Projects of National Science Foundation of China (No. 81600977).

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    The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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    Zhen-Guo Zhu and Miao-Xuan Sun have contributed equally to this work.

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    Zhu, ZG., Sun, MX., Zhang, WL. et al. The efficacy and safety of coenzyme Q10 in Parkinson’s disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neurol Sci 38, 215–224 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2757-9

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2757-9

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