Figure 1. Chemical structure of the mitochondria-targeted curcuminoids used in this study.
(A) Curcumin; (B) Mitocur-1; (C) Mitocur-2; (D) Mitocur-3. The synthetic curcuminoids (Mitocur-1,2,3) have a triphenylphosphonium cation linked to the hydroxyl group(s) of curcumin via a three-carbon propyl chain. Mitocur-3 is similar to Mitocur-1, but is devoid of methoxy substitution on the aryl groups.