The death of an organism in critical condition can be prevented with the help of a mitochondrial antioxidant. This was reported by the press service of Moscow State University.
Within the scope of the study, biologists at Moscow State University put forward a hypothesis: There is a self-destruct mechanism in the organisms of living things that works when the organism is in a serious state. For example, this can happen during a serious injury or infectious disease, where the animal would not be beneficial for evolutionary development (or even harming its relatives) even if it survived. In other words, in a critical situation, the organism may be faced with a choice between living or dying.
“We have shown that mitochondria, and more specifically the reactive oxygen species they produce, play a critical role in making this decision. By influencing this process with the help of our SkQ1 substance, we can prevent the activation of the suicide mechanism, which is important for the evolution of animals but is absolutely harmful to humans. Maxim Skulachev, one of the authors of our study,” “The results of our study offer broad hope for the use of mitochondria-targeted antioxidants, particularly SkQ1, to prevent death in a person in critical conditions.”
Thus, using SkQ1, the authors were able to prevent the death of animals in four types of critical conditions: extensive trauma (or surgery), severe infection, poisoning with toxins, and hypothermia. During the experiments it was also possible to find that it is the production of reactive oxygen species by the mitochondria, which SkQ1 fights, that is responsible for the dangerous activation of the innate immune system (the so-called cytokine storm). It is the main cause of death in many critical situations. Hypothetically, in the future this method could be used in the treatment of crisis situations.
Scientific article about the results of the study has been published published in Scientific Reports.
Previously, scientists strength rats got smarter with food supplements.