Several studies have linked dietary supplements like nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, to benefits related to heart, metabolic and brain health.
But a recent study from the University of Missouri found NR could actually increase the risk of serious disease, including developing cancer.
Researchers discovered that high levels of NR could not only increase someone’s risk of developing triple-negative breast cancer, but also could cause cancer to metastasize or spread to the brain.
Once cancer reaches the brain, the results are deadly because no viable treatment options exist at this time.
Since NR is a known supplement for helping increase levels of cellular energy, and cancer cells feed off of that energy with their increased metabolism, the team wanted to investigate NR’s role in the development and spread of cancer.
The researchers compared and examined how much NR levels were present in cancer cells, T cells and healthy tissues.
The findings of the study emphasize the importance of having careful investigations of potential side effects for supplements like NR prior to their use in people who may have different types of health conditions.
In the future, the team would like to provide information that could potentially lead to the development of certain inhibitors to help make cancer therapies like chemotherapy more effective in treating cancer.
The key to this approach is to look at it from a personalized medicine standpoint.
The team says not all cancers are the same in every person, especially from the standpoint of metabolic signatures. Often times cancers can even change their metabolism before or after chemotherapy.
The study was conducted by Elena Goun et al and published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about the causes of cancer, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about cancer, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer, and results showing low-fat diet could be key to stopping cancer growth.
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