Dr. Charles Brenner (FAQs), who discovered Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Reviews) as an NAD boosting vitamin and is actively studying NR’s impact on the treatment of COVID-19 recently joined YOU The Owner’s Manual Podcast (Host Dr. Michael Roizen is Chief Wellness Officer at Cleveland Clinic) to discuss his latest research. Key quotes and podcast embedded below:

Key Points:

  • NAD is crucial to humans functioning properly
  • NAD is quickly decimated by coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Study shows stressed cells attacked by COVID-19 looking for NR to raise NAD and fight back
  • Plans for human trials to see NR impact on coronavirus (COVID-19)

KEY QUOTES FROM DR BRENNER:

What is NAD?

“NAD (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide) is the central catalyst of metabolism”

NAD Comes Under Attack (i.e. from stresses like coronavirus, COVID-19)

“…the NAD system gets disturbed by a lot of conditions of metabolic stress.

And so you need NAD precursor vitamins (NR) in order to replenish and fill NAD stores”

When NAD Comes Under Attack (i.e from a Virus), Cells Look for NR to Replenish NAD for Anti-Viral Defense

“…in 2004…we discovered that Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is an unanticipated vitamin precursor (booster) of NAD. We found the genes and the enzymes that convert NR into NAD.

It turns out that when NAD is under attack by conditions of metabolic stress like…..viral infection…NR is very valuable to cells. And cells actually turn up the NR kinase gene pathway in order to make NAD from NR.

So, stressed cells are seeking this vitamin nutrient (NR) in order to fill their NAD stores in order to continue to do defense and free radical defense and potentially ant-viral defense as well”

NAD Declines in Response to Different Kinds of Stress

“It turns out that NAD declines under many conditions of metabolic stress. So NAD in various tissues declines as a function of age.

…we know NAD is strikingly disturbed by many different conditions like overeating, potentially sleep disruption of the circadian cycle, certainly by DNA damage, reactive oxygen species. Many disease processes including heart failure and neurodegeneration attack NAD.

So whether it’s normal aging or many of these disturbances that we encounter as we go through life — overeating….over drinking — attacks the NAD system.

And so there’s a greater use case of Nicotinamide riboside (NR) in maintaining resiliency through time and in maintaining resiliency through metabolic challenges whether they’re time zone disruptions, sun damage, reactive oxygen species or infection“

Active Human Trials Examining NR’s Impact on Various Diseases

“So, there are 30-40 initiated and a few of them are completed human clinical trials of Nicotinamide riboside (NR)…

…having seen in multiple animal models neuroprotective activities of NR, there are many different clinical trials that are assessing the potential benefits of NR in mild cognitive impairment and other neurodegenerative conditions.

I was in Oslo, Norway a few months ago and I think there were 5 human clinical trials in that one tiny country and 2 or 3 of them are related to neurodegeneration.

We have human clinical trials that have been completed in healthy populations showing safe oral availability and then we have the other ones have been very short term like 3, 6, and 12 weeks that are looking at older adults, some people with obesity, fatty liver, mild hypertension, and the results are starting to show promise specifically in areas like fatty liver in males, potentially…..

…there are other things I can’t talk about yet that will be coming out very shortly that will relate to overweight and obese populations.

The human clinical trials relating to cognitive impairment — there’s one — you can look it up at ClinicalTrials.gov and you’ll see that there are some folks at UT San Antonio that are doing a trial and they’re one of the first to be active in that area and I don’t think they’re finished yet so they won’t be able to communicate their results….but there are more clinical results coming out just about every month now“

NAD Decimated when Attacked by Coronavirus (COVID-19)

“…NAD actually goes down strikingly in (viral) infected cells by more than 3-fold and this is just in 12 hours…”

And so we describe this in a paper that’s now publicly available in preprint.

It’s just now undergoing peer review and we’re very excited about this because this work shows that NAD is under attack. NAD is also required for the innate immune defense against the virus.

NAD Decimated by Cornonavirus; Cells Looking for NR

“…we’re able to see in multiple models including a ferret that was infected with the coronavirus, Covid-19, as well as from a human patient sample, someone who died of Covid-19, that 2 of the ways that cells make NAD are upregulated, most notably, the Nicotinamide riboside (NR) kinase pathways.

So, the NR pathway gets turned up by this and other conditions of metabolic stress in an apparent way for the cell to achieve homeostasis — for the cell to get back to the NAD level that will boost its metabolism and boost its immune defense.

So we’ve not yet shown that NR will protect against infection — we’re obviously working on that — and we have some preliminary data that we’re not able to publish yet because things are being replicated and done in a number of ways, being written up.

So, in the first body of work that we published we’ve shown that the coronavirus strongly disturbs the NAD system, it knocks NAD down, it knocks these protective genes called PARPs up — very specific PARPs that we’ve identified and described to the rest of the scientific community, and then we also see that the NRk pathway, the Nicotinamide riboside (NR) utilization pathway is upregulated.

And so we have an idea of what kinds of NAD boosting compounds may be protective and then of course we’re switching from just doing cell work to animal work and designing a human clinical trial that will test the potential preventative activity of NR and NAD boosting approaches to boosting anti-viral innate immunity”

NR is Safe

“NR is safe in healthy human beings and in overweight human beings.

It’s being tested in many diseases and conditions”

Summary

“NAD is disrupted by coronavirus.

The NR utilization pathway — we know it’s upregulated in things like heart failure, neurodegernation. So it’s often a signal to a researcher like me when I see those genes are upregulated in a condition of metabolic stress, I want to see whether NR will be helpful. Those are exactly the conditions in which NR has been helpful in animal models like in heart failure, in protecting against neurodegeneration.

And what we just published, is that NAD is under attack and the NR kinase pathway is activated in coronavirus infections. So it’s very promising research that suggests the potential activity of NR in this indication.

And, the paper that we just published, was about promoting innate immunity — it’s not going to be a substitute for hand washing — but by boosting NAD you’re potentially going to be able to boost innate immunity and so that’s why we’re excited about it.

Listen to the full 30-minute podcast below:

RELATED:

  • FAQs on taking NAD boosting vitamin supplement Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) can be found HERE.
  • NR supplementation may have helped sufferers of these diseases & conditions (Consumer Reviews)

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