We’ve long known that Scripps Research’s Dr. Brunie Felding has been studying NAD+ booster Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Anecdotes) as a possible treatment for breast cancer. But, aside from a brief mention of her work by NAD+ expert Dr. Charles Brenner, we’ve heard virtually nothing. Until now. Chromadex (sellers of NR) recently gave consumers an opportunity to ask Dr. Felding various questions via email. The following is an email response from Dr. Felding (published with permission):

Question:

What can you tell us about your Lab’s current research, since little has been published in the last six years involving NAD precursors?

Are you still researching the effect of NR?

Is that only on breast cancer, or other conditions?

Are you researching other NAD precursors as well?

What percentage of the Lab’s energy is focused on NAD precursors as opposed to other kinds of treatments?

DR. Brunie Felding:

“Yes, we have conducted a number of breast cancer studies in the interim.

In each case we asked the question if and in which way supplementation with NAD+ precursors could influence the outcome of standard-of-care therapies for breast cancer patients.

Both studies are currently being completed and will be submitted for publication in the near future.

One of our studies focuses on integration of NAD+ precursor treatment with endocrine therapy for breast cancer patients with estrogen-receptor-positive tumors.

Patients in this group are often recommended medication that inhibits the growth-promoting activity of estrogen, e.g., by interfering with hormone binding to the estrogen receptor.

In our study, conducted with human breast cancer cell lines in immune-deficient mice and based on extensive mechanistic analyses in vitro, we discovered the imporance of a not-well-known programmed cell death pathway.

This pathway is NAD+ dependent, and supplementation with an NAD+ precursor supported tumor cell death, thereby supporting the therapeutic effect of anti-estrogen therapy.

Similar results were seen when we studied breast cancer cell responses to radiation therapy.

Working toward clinical translation, we will challenge the outcome from our studies in further preclinical investigations in our laboratory and our collaborative efforts.

In addition to our research on the involvement of NAD+ metabolism in breast cancer, and more recently also on primary brain cancers such as glioma and glioblastoma multiforme, we have focused on novel oncology treatments.

These include studies on a new chemotherapy pro-drug developed by a colleague at our institute who is a world-leading expert in medicinal chemistry.

While we strive to target our efforts on new personalized treatments, I could not resist the challenge of working on this new pro-drug, since our initial preliminary studies revealed unexpected efficacy in our most challenging mouse models of spontaneous breast cancer and produced unprecedented durable benefit, essentially without toxicity.

I have a small group, and securing funding for our research is a persisting challenge.

Therefore, we strive to open our minds when interpreting our results to maximize the benefit from our research and relate the outcomes from our distinct studies to one another, aiming to generate insight that will benefit patients”

NAD+ expert Dr. Charles Brenner on Dr. Felding’s work (2019):

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