A short YouTube interview (host McCall McPherson) discussing near-term directions in NAD research. The respondent outlines clinical trial activity for NR and NMN—questions include cancer risk, cognitive benefits in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's, and heart-failure trials in humans—and highlights basic science advances such as a mitochondrial NAD transporter, compartmentalized NAD pools, and the challenge of identifying which NAD-dependent processes are most sensitive to changes in NAD levels.
Chapters
Me what you think we'll see on the horizon about NAD research or what, what are things that you're excited or working on in this field?
Yeah, well, I mean, I think a lot of clinical trials are in progress for a lot of the same questions. We've been talking about just getting larger numbers of people in. So I think we'll certainly get some more insight specific to nicotine riboside and mononucleotide and whether, whether cancer's a risk, whether there's improvements in cognitive function in people with, with either mild cognitive impairment or full blown Alzheimer's disease. I think we're going to see some larger trials of heart failure in he humans and so we'll see if there's really a benefit there to back up all these mouse benefits that we've been seeing. So I think on that front, clinically, it's a really, really exciting time. All these pro, all these trials are enrolling and, you know, it's frustrating to have to wait for the results, but I think in a couple of years we're really going to see a lot of interesting things coming out. Personally, I'm really just excited about a lot of the basic science we're doing right now. Right. We found this transporter that gets the NAD into the mitochondria. We know there's other compartmentalized pools around the cells, and we're starting to really understand which cell types respond differently to N, which ones are at risk of being deficient within those cells, which processes really are sensitive to changing NAD levels. I think that's been one of the biggest frustrations in the field is that there's about 500 redox reactions that require NAD. There's about 40 of these NAD consuming ones that we know of. So well over 500 things changing when you move NAD levels and we just don't know which ones are sensitive. Right. We have.
