National Institutes of Health Announces NIAGEN® Shows Improved Cognitive and Physical Function

Press Release

ChromaDex Corp., an integrated, science-based, nutraceutical company devoted to improving the way people age, announced today that the results from its collaborative research agreement with the NIA and NIH which appear in the Feb. 5, 2018, issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and were announced in an NIH news release, show that NIAGEN® nicotinamide riboside (NR) prevented neurological damage and improved cognitive and physical function in a new mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) that more closely resembles human AD than other mouse models. These promising findings arrive just a few short months after Dr. Johan Auwerx and his team published their results demonstrating that AD mice treated with NR had lower levels of amyloid deposits, improved mitochondrial energy production and improved memory in his paper, in the prestigious journal Nature. Study results provide strong preclinical support for NR research in Alzheimer’s patients.

ChromaDex Founder and CEO, Frank Jaksch, shared, “We are pleased that our collaboration with NIH-NIA resulted in a significant peer reviewed publication in a prestigious journal. We are aware of two human trials on mild cognitive impairment that are in progress. Data from these studies should pave the way for additional human clinical trials.”

“We will continue to support research that validates NIAGEN® as a weapon against conditions associated with aging,” stated Robert N. Fried, President and Chief Operating Officer of ChromaDex.

In this latest study, Vilhelm A. Bohr, M.D., Ph.D., senior investigator and chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology of the NIA’s Intramural Research Program, Dr. Yujun Hou, a postdoctoral investigator in the laboratory, and an international team of researchers first developed a new model of mice featuring hallmarks of human Alzheimer’s including neurofibrillary tangles, failing synapses, neuronal death and cognitive impairment. Mice received drinking water supplemented with NIAGEN® NR and over a three-month period, researchers found that the mice receiving NIAGEN® had reduced tangles in their brains, higher neuroplasticity, less DNA damage, increased production of new neurons from neuronal stem cells, and lower levels of neuronal damage and death. In fact, in the area of the brain which typically becomes damaged in individuals with dementia, NIAGEN® appeared to either clear existing DNA damage or prevent it from spreading. Importantly, the study demonstrated that NR treatment significantly increased the cerebral cortical NAD+/NADH ratio suggesting that NR enters the brain and boosts cellular NAD+ levels when administered orally.

The research team attributes the observed physical and cognitive benefits to the rejuvenating effect NR had on stem cells in both muscle and brain tissue. The scientific evidence suggests NAD depletion, the resultant DNA repair deficiency and reductions in cellular energy within the brain are suspected contributors to Alzheimer’s.  NAD is widely known to be critical for mitochondrial health and biogenesis, stem cell self-renewal, and neuronal stress resistance. Today, AD affects tens of millions of people worldwide, with these numbers expected to double within the next 20 years.

ChromaDex has enabled the proliferation of NR research by providing NIAGEN®, which has undergone extensive safety testing, at no cost to independent investigators who are leading nearly 130 programs in 34 different areas of health research including brain and heart health, immunity, and inflammation. To date there are 3 published clinical trials of NIAGEN®. NIAGEN® is also being utilized in at least 11 of the 14 human clinical trials currently listed on clinicaltrials.gov. A decade’s worth of pre-clinical research as well as published human clinical evidence have shown that supplementing with NIAGEN® efficiently and effectively boosts NAD levels.

For more information on ChromaDex, visit: http://www.chromadex.com/.