This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis

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This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis

This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis.

More and more modern people begin to pay attention to health preservation. In recent years, various dietary supplements have become active in the sight of consumers, and many people choose to consume dietary supplements to set up a “firewall” for their health.

However, a new study has sounded the alarm for people, suggesting that consumption of such common dietary supplements may have counterproductive effects and even increase the risk of cancer metastasis.

Recently, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Elena Goun’s team published a research paper ” A bioluminescent-based probe for in vivo non-invasive monitoring of nicotinamide riboside uptake reveals a link between metastasis and NAD+ metabolism” in Biosensors and Bioelectronics .

The study found that a vitamin B3 supplement, nicotinamide riboside (NR), could increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancer if not supplemented properly, and may also lead to metastatic spread of the cancer to the brain .

This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis

Figure 1: Source Biosensors and Bioelectronics

The myth of the “elixir of youth”

Nutraceuticals, defined as essential food ingredients that provide nutritional and medical health benefits.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is an important coenzyme that plays a central role in cellular energy metabolism, and its reduced levels have been associated with a variety of pathophysiological conditions, including various pathological changes caused by aging.

The reduction of NAD+ in the human body is closely related to the aging of the body. However, due to the poor bioavailability and serious side effects of NAD+, it has not been widely used in clinical medicine.

Therefore, people turned their attention to nicotinamide riboside (NR) , a vitamin B3 found in milk, yeast and beer. It is one of the most studied NAD+ precursors, and it is easily absorbed and utilized by the body.

NAD+ levels can be increased by supplementing NR, which can bring benefits to the metabolism, cardiovascular and nervous systems, and has strong potential for clinical application .

Although nicotinamide riboside is believed to have many benefits, the manner and concentration of nicotinamide riboside uptake by different cells and tissues remain unknown due to the lack of non-invasive in vivo imaging tools.

To break through the limitations of this understanding, the researchers developed a bioluminescent NR uptake probe (BiNR) for noninvasive longitudinal imaging of NR uptake in vitro and in vivo .

This technology non-invasively quantifies NR levels in real-time, and the presence of NR is indicated by the brightness of the light, with brighter light indicating a higher concentration of NR.

In addition, in order to enable the BiNR probe to be applied to clinical samples, the researchers also optimized the detection method, which can monitor the NR flux without transfecting the luciferase gene, so that the BiNR probe can be applied to clinical samples.

This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis

Figure 2: Source Biosensors and Bioelectronics

The role of nicotinamide riboside in cancer development and spread

The study’s corresponding author, Professor Elena Goun, lost her father just three months after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

Since then, Goun has sought a better scientific understanding of cancer metabolism, or the energy with which cancer spreads in the body.

Since NR is a known supplement that can help boost cellular energy levels, which cancer cells replenish through increased metabolism, Goun wanted to study the role of NR in cancer development and spread.

Using the BiNR probe, the researchers detected nicotinamide riboside uptake in four human breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231-luc, MDA-MB-468-luc, MCF-7-luc, and BT-20-luc). were quantified and found to have the highest uptake of nicotinamide riboside in a highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cell line .

Next, they used mouse models of MDA-MB-231 xenograft tumors to explore whether nicotinamide riboside increases cancer onset and metastasis.

Surprisingly, the results showed that nicotinamide riboside supplementation led to a significant increase in the prevalence of triple-negative breast cancer and brain metastases in mice .

Among them, 7 out of 10 mice in the nicotinamide riboside supplemented group developed detectable tumors (70%), while only 55% of the mice in the control group developed tumors, a data suggesting that NR supplementation makes tumors sick Rate increased by 27% !

In addition, adding NR also significantly increased the formation of brain metastases, with 9 of 11 mice in the NR-added group forming multiple metastases (81.8%), while only 3 of 12 mice in the control group found Transferred (25%) .

The researchers also measured bioluminescence signals in brain regions of the two groups of mice and observed a 3.8-fold increase in the signal in mice fed the NR-enriched diet compared to controls, reflecting the number of metastases in the brain.

Taken together, these data suggest that the addition of NR leads to a significant increase in cancer prevalence and promotes brain metastasis of cancer .

This vitamin may increase risks of cancer occurrence and metastasis

Figure 3: Source Biosensors and Bioelectronics

Professor Elena Goun speculated that, considering that the role of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is to increase cell energy, promote repair and delay aging, if cancer cells have already appeared in the human body, NAD+ and its precursors should be supplemented for some cancer patients Otherwise, it may have the opposite effect, causing cancer cells to grow faster and cancer to metastasize more rapidly.

Although this study only covered mouse cancer models, whether nicotinamide riboside supplementation promotes tumorigenesis and metastasis in humans remains to be investigated, but this result highlights that dietary supplements such as NR should be carefully considered before being used in populations with different health conditions.

The importance of investigating its potential side effects and looking at it from a personalized medicine perspective.

references:

Maric T, Bazhin A, Khodakivskyi P, et al. A bioluminescent-based probe for in vivo non-invasive monitoring of nicotinamide riboside uptake reveals a link between metastasis and NAD+ metabolism [published online ahead of print, 2022 Oct 29]. Biosen Bioelectron .2022;220:114826. doi:10.1016/j.bios.2022.114826