Press release 4/13
Thorne Research Announces Clinical Study to Assess Nicotinamide Riboside on Brain NAD+ in College Football Players
- Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, and ChromaDex to Collaborate on Study -
IRVINE, Calif., April 13, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thorne Research and ChromaDex Corp. (OTCQX:CDXC) announced today a research endeavor with Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute, regarding a planned clinical study to assess the effect of Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) on brain NAD+ in college football players.
The randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind study will enroll healthy male collegiate football linemen, not having a history of more than 3 concussions. Participants will take either 750 mg per day of Nicotinamide Riboside (NR) or placebo for 84 days. Pre- and post-intervention evaluations include physical assessment, blood tests for safety and toxicity monitoring, blood tests for biomarkers, neurologic testing, quality of life questionnaires, and real time measurement of brain NAD, using 31P MRS.
The primary outcome of the study is to measure the change in brain NAD+ levels over 3 months. The study is expected to begin in May 2016 with final data collected by March 2017.
The study will utilize advanced 7 Tesla in vivo 31P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) for noninvasive measurement of brain NAD+ concentrations, NAD+/NADH ratio, and ATP, using a method pioneered by Xiao-Hong Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor the University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.
The principal investigators of the study are Dr. Zhu and Brent A Bauer, MD, Director of the Well Living Lab and Director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Paul Jacobson, the CEO of Thorne Research, stated, “We now have data showing that nicotinamide riboside raises NAD+ in the blood and in the brains of animals. We have further evidence that NR raises NAD+ in white blood cells and in plasma in humans. This will be the first trial to examine whether NR raises NAD+ in the brains of humans. Since concussion activates the DNA repair enzyme PARP-1 (which consumes and lowers NAD in the brain), the possibility that NR might raise brain NAD+ levels opens an exciting new frontier in how we might be able to manage football-related concussion and other forms of traumatic brain injury in the near future.”
Frank Jaksch Jr., founder and CEO of ChromaDex, commented “We are honored to collaborate with Dr. Zhu and Dr. Bauer and their respective research teams, as well as Thorne Research on this clinical trial. The human study is designed to provide a better understanding on how NR may affect brain NAD+ levels in athletes who participate in football and other contact sports.”
Thorne Research introduced NiaCel® in 2014, which features ChromaDex’s patented ingredient NIAGEN®, the first and only commercially available form of nicotinamide riboside (NR), a naturally occurring vitamin B3 metabolite found in milk.
ChromaDex, through more than 50 collaborations with researchers around the world, is in the forefront of research showing that the use of NR helps preserve or restore mitochondrial function and may be beneficial in treating and/or preventing disease.
