2 replies to this topic

[pone11]

Everyone is using C60 with olive oil, to replicate conditions used in the study.   But is olive oil the best delivery substrate?

 

Olive oil will get the C60 through digestion into the blood, but how well will it transport the C60 into the cytoplasm, and then separately how much of that would get into the mitochondrial matrix?

 

Wouldn't a better delivery system be phospholipids, of the type being used for liposomal vitamin C?   Why or why not?

 

Why is this an issue?   Look at the big picture.   Where does aerobic metabolism take place?   Most of it is on the cell membrane of the mitochondria as the electron transport chain.   Between 1% and 5% (depends on species and individual) of aerobic energy generated becomes free radicals.   C60 is an antioxidant meant to handle free radicals.   You want the antioxidant to be resident in the system that generates the free radicals, if you want to maximize the benefit of the antioxidant.   There might be value to having C60 in the cytoplasm of the cell and have it handle antioxidants as they seep out of the mitochondrial membranes into cytoplasm.   But those radicals did a lot of damage getting to the cytoplasm.  You would be sustaining mitochondrial damage.   Mitochondria are our energy factories.   That's the entity we want to defend.

[sensei]

Liposomal vitamin C is used because the phospholipids pass easily through the walls of the intestines, carrying the hidden vitamin c. A huge percentage of regular vitamin C or even ascorbate salts is not absorbed by the intestines, so the only way to get serum levels approaching IV ascorbate is to use liposomal.

[pone11]

Liposomal vitamin C is used because the phospholipids pass easily through the walls of the intestines, carrying the hidden vitamin c. A huge percentage of regular vitamin C or even ascorbate salts is not absorbed by the intestines, so the only way to get serum levels approaching IV ascorbate is to use liposomal.

 

But it is more than that I think.   It's very common in cellular biology for metabolites inside of a cell to surround themselves with tiny cell membranes, and when these come in contact with other cell membranes they are easily incorporate in, and the contents released.     Liposomal Vitamin C is surrounded by phospholipid cell membranes (although I don't know what fatty acids they stick onto the tails).   So at minimum that liposome gets to the cell membrane and the payload gets into the cytoplasm.    What's not clear to me is does the liposome get preserved and then make its way to the mitochondrial membrane and get incorporated there.

 

But basically it looks like these liposomal formulations are just copying nature and trying to sneak drugs into the cell using the same technique that nature uses to move many things around between membrane structures.