Antioxidants
When 'Antioxidants' Heal
COVID-19 impairs mitochondrial function through free radicals. A new study reveals how targeted antioxidants can halt this process and protect cellular energy.
Antioxidants
COVID-19 impairs mitochondrial function through free radicals. A new study reveals how targeted antioxidants can halt this process and protect cellular energy.
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You repeatedly see in the press that 'antioxidants' are supposedly unnecessary or even harmful. This is, of course, ... misleading.
If antioxidants were inherently unnecessary, our bodies wouldn't produce a whole arsenal of antioxidant enzymes designed to protect against so-called oxidative stress—an excess of free radicals.
Enzymes and proteins that show a close connection to longevity and protection against disease, such as the famous FOXO3A, often regulate exactly these kinds of antioxidants upward, increasing the amount of antioxidants in our cells.
So if we're already being warned about the 'evil vitamin C' and so forth, we should, for completeness, also mention that antioxidants themselves are typically beneficial.
A new study just published in the journal PNAS confirmed this once again.¹ This is so fascinating that we wanted to tell you about it.
The study found that the coronavirus impairs the function of our mitochondria ('the power plants of our cells'). This is unfortunate, because damaged mitochondria cause a significant drop in energy production in the cells.
Instead of continuing to burn fats happily, the cell ferments more sugar, and the damaged mitochondria produce more ... free radicals, causing oxidative stress. The key point: this is exactly what the coronavirus loves and needs to replicate.
The researchers put two and two together and increased antioxidant function within the mitochondria. And then something like magic happened:
Essentially, what happened is exactly what you'd want from a COVID treatment in general—through targeted mitochondrial antioxidants.
The researchers explicitly refer to the coronavirus's 'key signal' within our cells—the signal that drives viral replication. This key signal is the blocked mitochondria and elevated oxidative stress.
A key signal for viral replication, then ... mitigated or prevented by targeted antioxidant administration—QED!
We cannot replicate the exact method of this special enhancement of antioxidant function in this experimental model. But we do have the ability to protect our mitochondria more strategically with antioxidants.
We've only scratched the surface of the range of possibilities to improve antioxidant levels in our cells and thus possibly protect ourselves from short- or long-term consequences of a COVID infection.
Sometimes in complex biochemistry, we find a common thread. That's what clever people have presented to us here.
In short: COVID-19 disrupts the balance of mitochondrial antioxidant metabolism, causing mitochondrial dysfunction, which in turn plays into the virus's hands and makes us sick.
Here we could show that through antioxidants, we can get a foot in the door and inhibit this disease-causing process.
We like that. Do you?
¹ Joseph W. Guarnieri et al. Mitochondrial antioxidants abate SARS-COV-2 pathology in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024; 121 (30) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2321972121
