Coenzyme Q10 was first discovered by Professor Fredrick L. Crane and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Enzyme Institute in 1957. In 1958, its chemical structure was reported by Dr. Karl Folkers and coworkers at Merck; in 1968, Folkers became a Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1961 Peter Mitchell proposed the electron transport chain (which includes the vital protonmotive role of CoQ10) and he received a Nobel prize for the same in 1978. The antioxidant nature of CoQ10 derives from its energy carrier function. As an energy carrier, the CoQ10 molecule is continually going through an oxidation-reduction cycle. As it accepts electrons, it becomes reduced. As it gives up electrons, it becomes oxidized. In its reduced form, the CoQ10 molecule holds electrons rather loosely, so this CoQ molecule will quite easily give up one or both electrons and, thus, act as an antioxidant. Numerous scientists around the globe started studies on this molecule since then in relation to various diseases including cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
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