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The Science of NAD+, Explained
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The coenzyme NAD+ - “the golden nucleotide” - is the subject of countless preclinical
studies indicating that increasing NAD+ levels in lower organisms may have a variety
of positive effects on health. We’re especially interested in NAD+ at Elysium:
We’ve demonstrated that our first product,
Basis, increases NAD+ levels in humans, and we’re working on research to better
understand how the gut microbiome affects systemic levels of NAD+. If you’re new
to the science of NAD+, here are a few facts to get you started.
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NAD+ is a coenzyme found in all living cells.
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Coenzymes are colloquially referred to as “helper molecules” because proteins
— large molecules made of amino acids that do the important biological work in
the body — require them to do their work. (And they’re called
coenzymesbecause most proteins are enzymes.) If you think of a car as a protein,
getting you from place to place so you can go about your life, the gas (or battery
if you have a Tesla) is the coenzyme, without which driving is impossible.
But gas (or batteries) can also be used to power any number of other things, from
yachts to spacecraft. So too with NAD+, whose chief role is transferring electrons
in redox reactions, including oxidative phosphorylation, otherwise known as the
metabolic process our body uses to turn food into energy. |
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Nobel Prize-winning scientists discovered NAD+ more than 100 years ago.
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NAD+ was first discovered by Arthur Harden and William John Young in 1906. In
1929, Harden and Hans von Euler-Chelpin won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their
work on fermentation. They determined that fermentation required the presence of
an enzyme (“zymase,” actually a mixture of enzymes) and a coenzyme which they called
“cozymase,” now known as NAD+.
Euler-Chelpin further identified the structure of NAD+, which is made of two nucleotides,
the building blocks for nucleic acids (the same thing DNA is made of). The role
of NAD+ in fermentation, a metabolic process, foreshadowed the critical role that
NAD+ plays in metabolic processes in humans. |
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The science of NAD+ is evolving as more research emerges.
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Several important discoveries about NAD+ followed the 1929 Nobel Prize. The most
recent discovery happened at MIT, when
Dr. Leonard Guarente, founder of Elysium, and Dr. Shin-ichiro Imai observed
that sirtuins — a family of proteins that have been shown in the laboratory setting
to be influential in impacting healthspan — only function in the presence of
NAD+. (Reminder: Sirtuins are the proteins that do biological work; NAD+ is the
coenzyme that allows that work to happen.)
So why are scientists excited? An increasingly detailed picture of NAD+ shows
its many functions, from energy creation, to sirtuin activity, to a wide range
of other enzymatic activities including mitochondrial function, chromosomal integrity,
gene expression, epigenetic and posttranslational modifications, and calcium signaling. |
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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and
is intended for healthy adults, 18 years of age or older. Do not take this product
if you are pregnant or nursing.
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