A new study has found that the popular dietary supplement nicotinamide riboside may increase the risk of serious illness, including the development of cancer.
Researchers at the University of Missouri used bioluminescence imaging technology to make the discovery while studying how nicotinamide riboside supplements work in the body.
Over-the-counter dietary supplements such as nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, have been associated with benefits related to cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurological health in previous studies. But a new study from the University of Missouri (MU) found that NR may actually increase your risk of serious illness, including developing cancer.
Supplements containing nicotinamide riboside claim benefits such as increased energy, anti-aging/longevity/healthy aging, improved cellular energy metabolism and repair, increased vitality, and improved heart health. Therefore, it is often sold.
Scientists have found that high levels of NR not only increase the risk of developing triple-negative breast cancer, but can also cause the cancer to metastasize and spread to the brain. , was led by Elena Goun, associate professor of chemistry at MU and corresponding author of the study. She said once the cancer reaches the brain, the results are fatal because there are no viable treatment options at this time.
“Some people bring [vitamins and supplements] We automatically assume that vitamins and supplements have only positive health effects, but we know very little about how they actually work. I was inspired to research basic questions about how it works.
After his father died at the age of 59, just three months after being diagnosed with colon cancer, Goun was moved by his father’s death to become more scientific about cancer’s metabolism—the energy it uses to spread in the body. I wanted to deepen my understanding. NR is a supplement known to help boost cellular energy levels, and cancer cells consume that energy with increased metabolism, so Goun wants to explore his role of NR in cancer development and spread. I thought.
Elena Gon.Credit: University of Missouri
“Our work is particularly important given the large number of ongoing human clinical trials that are widely marketed and in which NR is being used to reduce the side effects of cancer treatments in patients,” said Goun. said.
Researchers have used this technique to compare and investigate how much NR levels are present in cancer cells, T cells, and healthy tissues.
“While NR is already in widespread use by people and is being investigated in numerous ongoing clinical trials for additional applications, much of how NR works is a black box and “That led me to conceive of this new imaging technique based on ultra-sensitive bioluminescence imaging that allows real-time quantification of NR levels in a non-invasive manner. The presence of NR is due to light.” , and the brighter the light, the more NR is present.”
Goun said the results of the study emphasize the importance of carefully investigating potential side effects of supplements like NR before using them in people who may have various types of health conditions. In the future, Goun hopes to provide information that could lead to the development of specific inhibitors to make cancer treatments such as chemotherapy more effective in treating cancer. thinking about. According to Goun, the key to this approach is to look at it from a personalized medicine perspective.
“Not all cancers are the same for everyone, especially in terms of metabolic signature,” said Goun. “In many cases, cancers can even change their metabolism before and after chemotherapy.”
See: “Bioluminescence-Based Probes in vivo Non-invasive monitoring of nicotinamide riboside uptake reveals a link between metastasis and NAD+ metabolism.” Tamara Malik, Arkady Bazin, Pablo Kodakivsky, Georgi Mikhailov, Ekaterina Solodnikova, Alexei Evtodi Enco, Greta Maria Paola Giordano Attianese, George Cucos, Melita Irving, Magalli Geoffrod, Carles Cantó and Elena Goun, 29 October 2022, Biosensors and bioelectronics.
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.114826
Other authors of this study are Arkadiy Bazhin, Pavlo Khodakivskyi, Ekaterina Solodnikova, and Aleksey Yevtodiyenko from MU. Tamara Malik from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Greta Maria Paola Giordano Attianese, George Coukos, and Melita Irving from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Switzerland. Magali Joffraud and Carles Cantó, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Switzerland. Bazhin, Khodakivskyi, Mikhaylov, Solodnikova, Yevtodiyenko, and Goun also belong to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Mikhaylov, Yevtodiyenko, and Goun, also from Switzerland, have partnered with SwissLumix SARL.
Funding was provided by grants from the European Research Council (ERC-2019-COG, 866338) and the Swiss National Foundation (51NF40_185898), with support from NCCR Chemical Biology.
