Preclinical studies have revealed that the elevation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ) upon the administration of nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), an NAD + precursor, can mitigate aging-related disorders; however, human data on this are limited. We investigated whether the chronic oral supplementation of NMN can elevate blood NAD + levels and alter physiological dysfunctions in healthy older participants. We administered 250 mg NMN per day to aged men for 6 or 12 weeks in a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group trial. Chronic NMN supplementation was well tolerated and caused no significant deleterious effect. Metabolomic analysis of whole blood samples demonstrated that oral NMN supplementation significantly increased the NAD + and NAD + metabolite concentrations. There were nominally significant improvements in gait speed and performance in the left grip test, which should be validated in larger studies; however, NMN exerted no significant effect on body composition. Therefore, chronic oral NMN supplementation can be an efficient NAD + booster for preventing aging-related muscle dysfunctions in humans.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-022-00084-z