COLUMBIA, Mo. — Take a long hard look at your medicine cabinet. It may be time to throw a few bottles out. New research from the University of Missouri-Columbia indicates the popular dietary supplement nicotinamide riboside (NR) may promote an increased risk of cancer, and may even cause cancer to metastasize or spread to the brain.
Prior research had suggested that nicotinamide riboside, a source of vitamin B3, may benefit cardiovascular, metabolic, and neurological health. NR supplements have claimed to provide extra energy, increased physical performances, and even anti-aging effects. This latest study serves as a strong motivator to leave this supplement on the shelf.
The international research team behind these findings, led by Elena Goun, an associate professor of chemistry at MU, uncovered that high levels of NR appear to increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancer. Additionally, lots of NR also appears capable of promoting brain metastasis – which is a fatal development for most patients. Prof. Goun explains that there are currently no viable treatments for brain cancer metastasis.
“Some people take them [vitamins and supplements] because they automatically assume that vitamins and supplements only have positive health benefits, but very little is known about how they actually work,” Prof. Goun says in a university release. “Because of this lack of knowledge, we were inspired to study the basic questions surrounding how vitamins and supplements work in the body.”
When Prof. Goun’s 59-year-old father passed away only three months after being diagnosed with colon cancer, she decided to pursue a stronger scientific understanding of cancer’s “metabolism,” or the energy through which cancer spreads in the body. Nicotinamide riboside is known to help increase cellular energy levels, and cancer cells feed off of cellular energy via their increased metabolism. So, Prof. Goun hypothesized it may be a good idea to investigate nicotinamide riboside’s role in the development and spread of cancer.
“Our work is especially important given the wide commercial availability and a large number of ongoing human clinical trials where NR is used to mitigate the side effects of cancer therapy in patients,” she notes.
“While NR is already being widely used in people and is being investigated in so many ongoing clinical trials for additional applications, much of how NR works is a black box — it’s not understood,” Prof. Goun continues. “So that inspired us to come up with this novel imaging technique based on ultrasensitive bioluminescent imaging that allows quantification of NR levels in real time in a non-invasive manner. The presence of NR is shown with light, and the brighter the light is, the more NR is present.”
During an animal study, the bioluminescent imaging technology made it possible to compare and examine precisely how much nicotinamide riboside was present in cancer cells, T cells, and healthy tissues.
All in all, study authors say that their work stresses the need for careful investigations of potential side effects for all supplements similar to NR. It’s especially important that these investigations be performed before these products become available to the general public. Moving forward, Prof. Goun wants to uncover further information that can help develop more effective cancer treatments. The key, she believes, is to approach it from a personalized medicine standpoint.
“Not all cancers are the same in every person, especially from the standpoint of metabolic signatures,” Prof. Goun concludes. “Often times cancers can even change their metabolism before or after chemotherapy.”
The study is published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
Thank you for providing this article with awareness. I have been taking Nicotinamide Riboside for more than 5 years and was diagnosed PR+ER positive HER2 negative for breast cancer and had bilateral mastectomy in September 2022. Although I cannot prove that is associated with supplemental pill . I took DNA / genetic test shown negative from the cancer and no history of breast cancer but this article did help me to reframed from taking from my health sake
I enjoyed reading this article but I’m left wondering if we should be looking at the sun during that early morning sun exposure or just being outside early is all that’s needed?
What is the connection of the sun to nicotinamide riboside (NR)?
How much niacinamide is considered a high dose?
I take 1500 mg per day to help lower my cholesterol. Been taking it for over 10 hrs. No side effects that I am aware of.
Are you going to update this headline to demonstrate the lead of the study in Switzerland said the headlines were inaccurate and that the university injected these mice with aggressive cancer cells in the hearts?
This was an embarrassment for the University and even worse for aggregators that do not correct. The only thing this may suggest is that patients with existing cancers should not take NAD supplements. However even that data is unclear as pharmaceutical firms are looking at NAD based treatments for cancer.
However, they injected very aggressive cancer cells into immunocompromised mice. In non-immunocompromised mice, cancer cells are more likely to be killed off by an intact immune system, especially with less aggressive cancers.
It has been known that the repair process of SSB DNA damage consumes a large amount of NAD through PARP-mediated poly ADP-ribosylation. Thus, the combination with DNA damage inducing reagent and Nampt inhibitor may synergistically induce cell death in cancer cells
Now why anyone takes NR is beyond me when you can take NAD subq injections.
I take NR at home. Can I take NAD injections at home? If not, you have your reason people prefer the pills.
Again, untested hypothesis passing as science. Based on the article, she has not actually done any empirical tests that show her theory holds water. NR will be found in any cell, so no surprise it would show up in cancer cells. Lacking any scientific testing, it is presumptuous to make pronouncements about NR facilitating cancers. In fact one could conclude the opposite. It helps fight back cancer cells from expanding.
Thus the field of cancer research takes another step backwards. Seems a lot of ‘scientists’ today are out for fame and fortune rather than for truth. There should be a Stanley Pons award given out each year, just like the Darwin Awards, for those who equate science with personal opinions and hopes. Diogenes, don’t stop looking.