Nicotinamide riboside causes cancer risk, brain metastasis

I have taken NR for years along with other supplements and drugs and have been watching the research on its relationship to cancer closely. I work in life science on the computational side but am not a biologist.

There have been other reports on the NR-cancer relationship (summary from 2019, for example: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cancer-research-p...). NR increases NAD+, which may have health benefits, but may also help cancer cells grow. In fact, inhibiting NAD+ is a possible strategy to kill cancer cells.

Definitely worth watching, but I think the press release linked above overstates the actual findings from the new research. The journal abstract is here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09565...

The focus was creating a molecular probe for imaging NR uptake. They then tested this in a triple negative breast cancer animal model. I don’t know the exact model used (can’t access the paper), but it likely is bred to develop breast cancer easily.

The press release claims that NR “could actually increase the risk of serious disease, including developing cancer.” However, from the abstract at least, that seems like a big leap. They gave NR to mice designed to get breast cancer.

If there’s anything that this study might indicate, it’s that people with cancer shouldn’t take NR.

All of this said, in the rigorous ITP studies of NR in mice, they found no lifespan extension: https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/dab/interventions-testing-p....