Vitamin B3 Could Be Used to Treat Alzheimer’s

New research finds a compound that prevents brain damage in mice. The substance is a form of vitamin B3, and the findings suggest a potential new therapy for Alzheimer’s disease in humans.

Vitamin B3 has previously been proposed as an alternative for treating Alzheimer’s disease. In an older study, large doses of nicotinamide – also referred to as B3 – reversed Alzheimer’s-related memory loss in mice.

A new study, however, focused on the effect of nicotinamide riboside (NR), which is a form of vitamin B3, on Alzheimer’s-related brain damage in mice. NR is “critical for mitochondrial health and biogenesis, stem cell self-renewal, and neuronal stress resistance,” said Dr. Vilhelm Bohr, chief of the National Institute of Aging’s Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology.

The team added NR to the drinking water of mice that had been genetically engineered to develop the hallmarks of the neurodegenerative disorder. The mice drank the water for 3 months, and their brains and cognitive health were compared with those of the control mice. The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Compared with the controls, the NR-treated mice had less of the protein tau in the brain, less DNA damage, and more neuroplasticity – that is, the brain’s ability to “rewire” itself when it leans new things, stores new memories, or becomes damaged. Additionally, the mice in the intervention group produced more neurons from neuronal stem cells.

Fewer neurons died or were damaged in these mice. Finally, the researchers say that in the hippocampi – a brain area involved in memory that often shrinks or is damaged in Alzheimer’s – of the mice that received the treatment, NR appeared to get rid of the existing DNA damage or stop it from spreading.

Vitamin Supplement Linked to Reduction in Skin Cancer Risk

A cheap and easily available vitamin supplement appears to reduce a person’s risk of skin cancer, new research contends.

A fomr of vitamin B3 called nicotinamide is linked to a reduction of non-melanoma skin cancers by 23% when taken twice daily, according to Australian researchers.

“It’s safe, it’s almost obscenely inexpensive, and it’s already widely commercially available,” said author Dr. Diona Damian, a professor of dermatology at the University of Sydney.

Nicotinamide costs less than $10 for a month’s supply and is available a pharmacies and health food stores, she said.
However, more study is needed before researchers can say whether everyone would benefit from the supplement. “It’s not something we’d recommend at this stage for the general population,” Damian said.

The study is slated for presentation May 30 at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Funding for this study was provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, with about 5 million cases treated every year at a cost of about $4.8 billion, Damian said.

Ultraviolet rays from the sun cause most skin cancers by damaging the DNA of skin cells, Damian said.
The clinical trial involved nearly 400 high-risk patients who’d had a least two non-melanoma skin cancers during the previous five years. Their average age was 66 and two-thirds were men. Many also had chronic health conditions, such as arthritis, high blood pressure, or heart or lung disease, according to the researchers.