A Small Trial of NMN Supplementation Shows Improved Muscle Function

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is central to mitochondrial function, but declines with age. Mitochondria are the power plants of the cell, producing chemical energy store molecules to power cellular processes. When mitochondria run down, everything suffers. Thus a great deal of attention has been given over the years to approaches that might help to boost mitochondrial function in old individuals: mitochondrially targeted antioxidants; increasing NAD levels; transplantation of mitochondria; copying mitochondrial genes into the nucleus to provide resistance against mitochondrial DNA damage. The small molecule approaches widely deployed to date are arguably all marginal, at best on a par with structured exercise programs when it comes to improvement of health. Nonetheless, attempting to improve mitochondrial function by the use of small molecules to restore youthful NAD levels has a long history, going back decades prior to the point at which researchers realized that the interventions were raising NAD levels. The primary approach here is to use vitamin B3 derivatives, and those have been employed at high doses in clinical trials for a long time. Only in more recent years have researchers started to focus on how the compounds derived from vitamin B3, such as niacin, nicotinamide riboside, and nicotinamide mononucleotide, interact with the synthesis and recycling of NAD, and deliberately aimed at raising NAD levels for therapeutic effect. Today's paper rep...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs